Last Airbenders
by Xyder
Summary: A world where ninjas and benders coexist. Kyuubi, protector of Air Nomads is sealed in Naruto, who will grow up in fire nation as adopted son of Iroh and trained to defeat Aang, the avatar. Avatar and Naruto crossover
1. The beginning

**Disclaimer: **I do not own neither avatar or naruto.

**Last Airbenders**

Children, the story I am going to tell you tonight, is not simply a fairy tale or legend, it is the story of our origin. Sit down and you will hear the myth of our world.

Long ago, before four nations existed, nine beasts ascended from the heavens sent by the gods to create them. They were all different, but the thing, which they used to distinguished each other were their tails, who they had a different number each, and everyone of them could bend an element

Noquan, one-tailed raccoon dog of sandbending

Zolin, two-tailed cat of firebending

Lueba, three-tailed turtle of icebending

Boodfa, four-tailed lizard and the first avatar

Dackmey, five-tailed dog of thunderbending

Zinfi, six-tailed weasel of cloudbending

Honkar, seven-tailed badger of earthbending

Taeji, eight-tailed snake of waterbending

And Hacua, nine-tailed fox of airbending

Boodfa, leader of the nine, send the others around the empty planet to fill it. Noquan and Honkar bended the earth, creating deserts and mountains. Zolin and Dackmey bended fire, creating volcanoes and warmth. Lueba and Taeji bended water, creating ocean, lakes and poles. Zinfi and Hacua bended air, creating winds and skies. When all of the world was done, Boodfa made a finishing touch by combining bending techniques, creating weather and metals. After everything that could be done of chi was ready, Subreme God put his hands into twelve different positions, filling the world with chakra, which gave life to everything, making plants, animals and humans to appear. Even nine beasts, who originally were pure chi and thus the personifications of their elements, became flesh and blood. Beasts decided to stay on our world, which they now felt was their home, teaching humans to survive and bend the elements. So the Four Nations were created.

During their first generations of existence people lived in harmony with each other. Soon however the true nature of human race came to be. Benders started to opress those who couldn't bend. Seeing humans in peril, Supreme God gave those people who had justice in their hearts the ability to use chakra by giving them twelve hand seals he had used to give life. These people were the first mystics. Mystics defeated benders who had never seen chakra to be used as a weapon. But even the hearts of the mystics could be corrupted and soon they were the attackers. When even Supreme God himself became hopeless, Boodfa took matters to his own hands. By using all the four elements, he prevented a great slaughter from happening. After the defeat of corrupt mystics, Boodfa saw what had happened to his partners. Continuous fighting started to consume their sanity. Sensing that the time of the beasts was over, Boodfa put all of his friends with himself into a dormant state, hiding their bodies into places where no man could ever find them. Not wanting to let humans fvending of themselves, Boodfa let his essence go free, starting the avatar cycle. Since then have avatars protected the world. Sometimes they worked alone, but sometimes they collected followers. It didn't matter if they were benders, mystics or simply normal people since what they have in their hearts is the most important part. These people had several names like Dai Li or Yu Yan, but they were all ninjas, hidden warriors. Ninjas are both similar and different compared to each other, like the avatars who founded them. I tell you this so that when you grow up, your children can know who they are and why.

However it is late now and time to go to sleep.

* * *

Katara listened closely to the story. Though she was already fourteen, she liked to hear stories, without any actual reason. On the other hand she notice to the storyteller, Haku. Haku was a mysterious boy. He wasn't a member of the water tribes, yet he could create ice, hated killing despite his assassin training and he looked more like a girl than a boy. Sokka said he was simply a weirdo, but Katara didn't agree. After all Sokka saw practically everything as weird.

When story ended and the children went to sleep, Katara went to search her brother. It was easier said than done. _"Calls me weird, yet disappears every night" _Katara thought in frustation. _"Sokka should look at his reflection" _

"Has Sokka disappeared again?" Came a voice behind Katara. It was Haku.

"Yes." She answered. "He has been disappearing around this time for a month or so. Possibly watching stars or something."

"Actually he is training with master Zabuza in the glacier" Haku corrected. "You see, Sokka wishes to become a ninja like him so that he could protect his village"

"I understand" Katara said in a silent voice. "Sokka has always been righteous and brave. By the way, do you know where they are?"

Haku nodded and and took Katara's hand. He escorded her to a part of glacier that was smooth like a plain. In the midst of a glacier sat a tall man in a southern water warrior's uniform. Haku could tell from his large sword that it was Zabuza, but Sokka was nowhere to be seen.

Katara couldn't find his brother either. "I give up Haku. There is nothing here but the glacier, Zabuza and a small iceberg moving towards him. MOVING!?"

The iceberg disappeared and got replaced by a startled Sokka, who was soon taken down by Zabuza.

Sokka crawled up and looked angrily at his sister. "Thanks a lot, Katara. If you hadn't shouted I would have been able to sneak attack Zabuza"

"I'm terribly sorry, Sokka. I had no idea" Katara apologised still shocked from the transformation.

"Actually it was a good thing you did that Katara." Zabuza interrupted, gaining confused looks. "Sokka, you lost your concentration the moment Katara shouted. Ninja must be able to block everything that would prevent his or her concentration."

"It's true. I'm sorry master Zabuza" Sokka apologised from his mentor.

"But now that you are here, Katara, it would be a good time to teach you some waterbending"

"Are you a waterbender?" Katara amazed.

"One of the best during my life in the north pole" Zabuza complied. He started to move his body fluently. About half a minute later he raised his hand upward and a large stream of water flew right through the ice. But this stream wasnt simply water. It had a shape, a reptile-like head and a snake-like body. It moved everywhere Zabuza concentrated his movements. Finally Zabuza made a movement that reminded of tossing something and the snaka flew to distance. Suddenly a large explosion bursted the ice far away. They could still feel the pressure wave of the strike. Katara looked shocked, Sokkas chin fell down, but neither Zabuza or Haku made a face.

"Water dragon is one of the greatest techniques of waterbending" Zabuza explained. "By searching an underwater stream and changing its movement you get yourself a magnificent beast to use." He then saw the shocked face of Katara "You don't need to worry. I made sure no animals got hurt. I normally use it only on fire ships. But we will start from the basics" He said and walked to the hole water dragon got out. "Just follow my moves and you'll learn in no time"

Katara watched closely how zabuza created a small sting of water an moved it. She started following and soon she also had a string of water to move.

Sokka watched moping the loss of training. But soon Haku touched his shoulder.

"Would you like to sparr, Sokka" He asked

"Why not" He said with a clever smile

On that night on the south pole glacier four didn't sleep at all.


	2. Family of fire

Author note: Hello to everyone who is reading this. I forgot to put this in the earlier chapter so I put it now.

Since there is possible to control elements in Narutoverse, I made some modifications in using the elements.

First of all elements work only when using chi, or the material energy. However bending is now more evolved. More accurately so that those that were elemental ninjutsu are now bending, thus not requiring hand seals. Bending works like a kekkei kenkai, thus it cant be copied.

That what remains from removing the elemental jutsus belong to mystism. Unlike bending that uses chi, mystism uses chakra, or life energy. Thus mystism has something to do with life, like summoning, cloning and transforming. It can also be used to walk on unwalkable places and bring life. Also bending and mystism can be combined.

About story I can say that both characters and happenings do have small twists, but basics are the same.

if there are any other questions you can ask me anytime.

Ps. Thanks for dlight for the first comment. I hope you like this one too.

* * *

Zuko stood on his ships bow, looking closely the icebergs. Though he had been here before, place didn't seem the same. Icebergs changed shape and places, that is why Zuko liked them. Many would have seen him a weirdo for liking icebergs, but it was mostly because he had been forced to be with the same people for two years. Zuko wished that his uncle Iroh and cousin Naruto would change their personalities or simply float away, but no. Iroh didn't really take the fact that he was also exiled like Zuko. Sometimes it seemed as he saw his exile as a vacation, concentrating more on relaxing with a cup of tea and playing Pai Sho. Naruto however was even worse. If Iroh was lax, Naruto was hyperactive, constantly playing pranks and eating at least five cups of ramen a day, even a thought of that gormandizing made Zuko's stomach twist. Otherwise those two had pretty much same personalities. On the other hand that was the only thing in common with them. Iroh had a grey straight hair in a topknot with brown eyes and a heavy build, while Naruto's hair was spiky and blonde, eyes were blue and his body was small and thin, despite his appetite. Even their bending techniques didn't match. Iroh was a normal firebender, but Naruto was able to bend air, something that should have disappeared almost a century ago. Yet Naruto had been on Iroh's side since he was a baby. Zuko couldn't undrstand it at all.

Luckily there were also those, who changed. After a year of exile. Fire Lord had allowed Zuko to take a ninja unit to back him up. First unit given to him was specialized in martial arts, necessary in defeating avatar. The unit was led by Maito Gai, self-proclaimed green beast of Fire Nation. He was pretty annoying even to his students, excluding Rock Lee, continuously talking about youth and challenging everybody to competitions. On the other hand he was a genius firebender and martial artist, capable of defeating dozens of benders alone if he wanted to. He was also a great researcher of bending and knew excactly what was needed to activate a certain bending skill, which even though he himself could bend only fire gave him the advantage. He was actually the one who taught Naruto airbending. So Zuko was capable of withstanding Maito Gai pretty easily, since Zuko's bending skills had improved greatly after his arrival. Gai's students, Rock Lee, Neji and Tenten, were also powerful but each had a nasty part in personality. Rock Lee, Maito Gai's top student was like a clone of him both in body and personality, except Lee wasn't capable of either bending or molding chakra, though he could use the latter in some degree. Neji, a member of the Hyuuga clan was a great mystic capable of damaging organs and widely known as a genius himself. Zuko practically hated him since he always saw everyone being bound to fates, saying once that Zuko would never return to Fire Nation. Tenten, the sole female and a weapon specialist could be said to be the single voice of reason in the group. Zuko could get pretty well along with her, but nothing else was between them..

Later Gai's team had to leave in order to perform missions in their homeland. Zuko could however choose another team, which he did. His current team was led by Kurenai Yuhi, illusion specialist and an expert tracker. Actually all members of the team specialized in tracking. Hinata, Neji's cousin, was in theory capable of seeing almost everything because of his byakugan, mystic eye of the Hyuuga line. But since she lacked confidence her vision was limited. Kiba could smell and hear sharply like a dog and also had a real dog aiding him. On the other hand Kiba also acted like a dog. Shino, the final member, had his body being fused with small beetles which could both track and fight. He was a somewhat mysterious character keeping his emotions out of the way. But in general Zuko got better along with them than with the first group.

The actual reason Zuko looked at the icebergs was that he was looking for the avatar, mysterious being capable of bending all four elements. Trackers were also on the bow wearing armors like zuko. Too bad nobody wasn't on its top today.

Hinata was desperately trying to see better. "It's no use. I'll never find anything" She gave up sadly.

Kiba's dog barked. "You're right, Akamaru" Kiba answered. "There is too much water to smell. Also we don't know Avatar's odor"

"Why aren't you doing anything, Shino?" Zuko asked from the boy with somewhat annoyed voice.

"It is too cold" He answered. "If I released my kikaichus, they would freeze to death"

Meanwhile Kurenai and Iroh played Pai Sho on the other side of the bow.

"It is good to see you again, Kurenai" Iroh started a conversation.

"Same with you, master Iroh" Kurenai continued. "But I'm still sad because Fire Nation is in crisis"

"Crisis? What kind of crisis"

"There are rebellions everywhere. People are getting sick of constant warfare. Fire Lord doesn't seem to realize that while more and more money is spent on the military, civilians live in poverty. If this continues, our homeland will be in a civil war."

"It is true. However peasants are no match against the Fire Nation army."

"Perhaps not the peasants, but Itachi is"

Suddenly Iroh dropped a tile. Itachi Uchiha was one of the greatest ninjas in the Fire Nation. Uchiha clan was a firebending ninja clan possessing a Sharingan, an eye capable of copying jutsus in the genes of its members. Itachi was exceptionally strong since his early life. Iroh had known him. He was a nice kid taking the needs of others before his own, even though the others did the opposite. Later he possibly grew mad or something, slaying all the members of the Uchiha clan in Fire Nation, leaving only his younger brother Sasuke alive. After that nobody knew what happened to him, but according to rumours he left to the Earth Kingdom, where he was welcomed as a hero.

"Do you meant that Itachi has returned?" Iroh asked nervously.

"I'm not sure." Kurenai answered. "There has been some rumors about a group of warriors dressed in black robes with red clouds, who are not loyal to any nation. Some say they simply help people for money. Other say they are trying to awaken rest of the sacred beasts. Itachi was seen wearing a costume like that.

"Well, if he is planning something, I am ready"

"By the way, where is prince Naruto. Isn't he normally pulling panks at this time of the day?"

"As his father I would say he is in the galley. Cooks are often working extra because of his obsession of ramen"

Kurenai chukled. "Just like your obsession with your tea. About being his father, when are you going to tell him?"

"Tell me about what!?" Came a loud question. Naruto had arrived on the table. He was also wearing an armor, except his armor was orange.

Iroh started to wonder, what to say. Should he lie or tell the thruth. He knew that this day would come anyway. But before he could answer a large pillar of light flew to the sky. Evebody looked at the pillar knowing what it was.

"Finally I found you." Zuko said triumphantly. "Take the course to that pillar!"

"ZUKOZUKOZUKOZUKOWHATISTHAT?!" Naruto shouted almost jumping off the ship.

"That is our ticket out of here" Zuko said calmly. Not even his cousin's loud voice could anger him now.

* * *

But when they arrived to the place where the light had come from, there was nobody there.

"CURSE YOU AVATAR, I WILL FIND YOU!!" Zuko shouted like Naruto, except with anger.

Meanwhile Kiba and Akamaru walked on their fours sniffing the surface, while Hinata and shino looked closer to the ice.

"No need to worry! We found something useful!" Kiba jumped up holding a tuft of fur. "Sky Bison's fur!"

Naruto watched closely to the fur. "I get it! Avatar is a Sky Bison!"

There was a long silence. Then Iroh, Kiba and Akabaru bursted to laugh. Kurenai and Hinata just chuckled and Shino an Zuko were still quiet.

"Are we the only sane people of this expedition?" Zuko asked.

"It appears so." Shino answered. "Anyway we know now that he came from the Air Nomads, so he is the same who disappeared a hundred years ago. But since there is fur but no corpse I would say the avatar was trapped into the ice for years, maybe decades, since even though a human can live over a century, a sky bison rarely reaches the age of eighty. He woke up from a long dream and left as soon as possible. What we need to do now is to concentrate on finding the bison. It is currently swimming to get cover from the icebergs, because if it flew we would have seen it already. Hinata must concentrate on finding heat, which should be easier in these cold waters."

"O-okay Shino. I-I-I will try my best" Hinata tattered.

Hinata concentrated harder than ever, finding a large source of heat in the water. "O-o-over there!"

Everybody boarded the ship following Hinata's vision. During the journey Naruto retuned to the galley and Iroh and Kurenai to their game. Kiba started to fight with Shino about who is the leader. But Hinata and Zuko stayed in the bow, Both looking into the Avatar's direction. A thriumphant smile returned to Zuko's face.


	3. Return of the Avatar

Author's note (not necessary): If some of you readers have wondered what are the differences between original series and this, I'll explain them now.

Several characters have combined elements. For example Sokka is able to use chakra, though he is still fond to science, which he will use in his own ninjutsu. Katara is more experienced in waterbending, but she still needs practicing. Naruto is able to bend air, but instead of Ba Gua, Naruto's style is based on white crane of shaolin, which has same principles.

Tailed Beasts are originally benevolent creatures, but because of the war some have lost their sanity. For example the genocide of Air Nomads drew Hacua into madness, making him slaughter Fire Natives until being sealed.

Instead of the amount of tails and animal characteristics, Beasts names have a relation to elemental bending

Noquan: Nanquan, term used to describe southern kung fu styles, which earthbending is based on.

Zolin: Shaolin, martial art used to inspire firebending

Lueba: Liuhebafa, also known as water boxing. Not used in the series.

Boodfa: Buddha, inspiration to avatar and avatar cycle.

Dackmey: Bak Mei, also known as white eyebrows, is a martial art with shaolin origins. Similar to dragon kung fu. Not used in the series

Zinfi: Xing Yi, a style with same principals as Ba Cua and Tai Chi, but more aggressive. Hints in air- and firebending

Honkar: Hung gar, martial art used to inspire earthbending.

Taeji: Tai Chi, martial art used to inspire waterbending

Hacua: Ba Gua, martial art used to inspire airbending

Haku stood in the outpost of the village. He was nervous. Katara and Sokka should have been home by now, yet they were still out of sight. _"When they get back here, they'll better have a good reason for staying at the waters for this late" _He thought. Suddenly a large animal swam towards. Haku readied to defend himself, but soon he also saw Katara and Sokka on its back with a bald arrow-headed boy wearing a some kind of uniform riding it. Haku started waving his hands.

The boy, Aang, was first to see him. "There is a girl waving at us. Do you know her?"

"Yes, he is Haku." Sokka answered sarcastically. "And you heard right. Believe it or not, he's a boy"

"Umm, Okay" Aang said making a strange face.

Katara laughed seeing Aang's face. "Don't worry. He isn't much weirder than you are. Besides he is a great storyteller and an incredible fighter"

"But he is nothing compared to Zabuza" Sokka continued. "He can destroy a fire nation ship with one move"

"Well, I believe you." Aang said. "What about Zabuza's stories?"

"Stories?" Sokka asked with a confused look. "Real men don't tell stories, so neither does Zabuza!" He answered going macho. "Okay, so Haku does, but who does count him as a ma-gulrgu!"

Sokka couldn't finish, because Katara suddenly stuffed a string of water in his mouth. Aang laughed a bit and continued riding Appa, the Flying Bison. It didn't take long to arrive to the village. When they did, Haku came to them looking very angry. "I said clearly, that you'll have to come back before sun starts setting and now it has almost set!" He scolded. "And who is he? I sent two with a boat to fish and three comes back riding a giant seal."

"Let me explain." Aang interrupted "I'm Aang, an airbender and avatar from Southern Air Temple, and this is Appa, Flying Bison and my best friend"

Haku however didn't believe. "Those were the worst lies I have heard in years. For you to know, both airbenders and Flying Bisons are extinct. They were killed to the last one in the hands of the Fire Nation"

Aang stood silently looking at Haku. The he started laughing. "You were right Katara, he is a great storyteller!" He said falling into snow from the laughter. "If that was true, It would have meant that I slept a hundred years!"

Katara looked sadly at ignorant Aang before speaking. "I'm afraid Haku is telling the truth, Aang. Around hundred years ago, Fire Nation got militarily stronger than the other nations. The first thing they planned was to destroy the avatar, who they saw as their biggest threat. It is unknown how long it took for them to kill everyone but nonetheless it was done.

Aang's face turned from amused to shocked. "No, that's not true! That's impossible!" He denied, but looking at Katara's eyes, he saw no sings of lies "Excuse me, I'll have to think about this" He said taking his staff and turning it into a kite-like form. All three just looked when Aang left to the sky Appa following him.

Both Katara and Sokka looked angrily at Haku. "Was that really necessary, Haku?" Katara asked.

But before Haku could answer, Zabuza interrupted. "It wasn't the smartest thing to do, but we don't have time to worry about that." He said pointing at the sea. A Fire Nation ship was coming straight towards the village. "We must concentrate on protecting the village. Katara and I get others to safety, Sokka and Haku, you go get your equipment's. We will all meet in this place in three minutes."

Everybody hurried in their own directions. After a while everybody was hiding in or behind huts farthest from the coast, except for four warriors currently waiting the coming of the enemy.

Sokka wore a lighter costume with a mask of seal made of paint and two clubs made of bone. Haku also wore make-up, except completely white excluding the eyes painted red. His battle dress had several straps full of needles, but in hands he had two fans. Zabuza and Katara kept what they had on. Ship came closer hitting the coast. A hatch opened revealing several warriors in red armors led by a boy with scarred left eye.

"Where is the Avatar?" The boy asked.

"You came too late" Zabuza answered. "He left before you came and disappeared to the sky. What I suggest is that you leave this place immediately."

The boy just laughed at them. "Leave? We outnumber you easily. Men, attack!"

Warriors started performing fire, but suddenly fell to the snow. Haku had thrown several needles, pulled the strap for fresh ones and grabbed the fans he had thrown upwards.

Boy looked surprised at them. "I guess you have iron in your words. Uncle Iroh! Kurenai! I need some back-up!

Another older man followed by a woman in her thirties and four kids.

"Here is the plan everyone" The old man, apparently Iroh, started. "Zuko and I take care of the man with the sword. Kurenai targets the kyoshi warrior. Kids take care of those two."

"What about me, daddy?!" Asked one of the kids from Iroh.

"Just do what you normally do, Naruto." Zuko answered for Iroh. "Stand there and look stupid."

"Got it, Zuko! HEY!" Naruto yelled after realising, what Zuko said.

But nonetheless the battle had started. Iroh and Zuko came from different sides of Zabuza, planning to surround him. But Zabuza was used to deal with attacks like this. He grabbed his sword, swung it fluently and thrusted it into the ice. A large geyser stroke underneath Iroh, who barely dodged it. Zabuza didn't at first concentrate on Zuko, seeing him only as a dog, who doesn't bite. Soon however he found out he was wrong, after several fireballs came from his direction. After dodging them, Zabuza ran towards the hole, where the geyser came from, and jumped in it, standing on the surface on the surface. He performed certain moves with his right hand and others with his left hand, creating two whips of water. Now Zabuza had the upper hand, but how long.

Haku on the other hand had some problems. For some reason he got himself captured by a large cherry tree, grown out of nothing. _"This Kurenai must be a great life-controller" _He thought._ "I must think something fast"_. But he didn't have time, because Kurenai suddenly appeared out of the tree.

"It is a shame you will die here, young kyoshi" She said. "You had potential of becoming a great ninja, but now your friends will see you die"

Suddenly Haku snapped. Friends! He hadn't seen his friends anywhere and he wasn't even in the same place. An illusion! After realising that Haku blocked Kurenai's kunai with his hand, that wasn't bound at all. Soon they were both back in the village, looking at each other.

"Have to say, kid, I am impressed" Kurenai admitted and came again towards Haku. "But the fight is not over"

Meanwhile Katara and Sokka were fighting against three kids. What they could hear from their speech, the girl was Hinata, boy with a dog Kiba and the other boy Shino. All of them used hand-to-hand combat, do Katara got the upper hand. According to Sokka's analyse, Shino wasn't used to fight with his hands, so he must have used something else normally, but it was unclear, what. Hinata on the other hand used mainly a some form of martial art, which utilised chakra, giving even a touch of her dangerous. However she seemed unsure about her strength, weakening her. Kiba was possibly strongest of the team, using his dog to aid him in attacking made him dangerous. He also used spinning attacks making other fly from the strike.

"They are younger and inexperienced compared to us, but if they synchronise their moves they can defeat us." Sokka informed her sister. "You keep those two busy, I'll take care of the dog boy"

Katara did what was told. Kiba started spinning again towards Sokka. Sokka crouched down. When Kiba came spinning towards him, he striked his index and middle fingers into the tornado, sending it towards Hinata and Shino. A large scream of agony was heard, when Kiba went out of control and crashed onto his team-mates.

"What did you exactly do?" Katara asked from his brother.

Sokka thought a moment for his answer. "Better you don't know."

But their triumph was short lived, because both of them flew backwards by a gust. When they looked towards the gust they saw the fourth boy, Naruto, standing on one feet with his arms spread like a bird.

"It took me a while to realise that Zuko just joked." He said smiling. "But now it's time to get serious!"

Naruto made a high kick with his airborne feet, making another gust. But it didn't hit, because it was blocked by another one. Aang had returned and landed between sibling and Naruto.

"Sorry! Meditating took longer than I though!" He apologised from them before turning back to Naruto. "If you are going to attack my friends, you'll have to go through me first!"

But Naruto didn't attack. Instead he looked at Aang confused. **"Aang?"** Came the name from his lips with a deep voice.

Aang wondered, how he knew his name, he hadn't told it. But even more surprises came, when a large red aura surrounded Naruto, turning his blue eyes into slits. Aang took a defensive position, but it was unnecessary, because the boy talked instead.

**"Aang? Is that you?"** he asked in a scary, monstrous voice.

But Aang wasn't scared, but surprised, since he recognised the voice. "Hacua?" He asked himself. Katara was also surprised after hearing the name. It was the same as that of the nine-tailed fox of airbending. But could this boy really be Hacua?

Hacua looked at the body he had. "So this is the child Hokage sealed me in." He then looked at Aang. "Yes, it is I, though not in my own body. I'll explain later"

Hacua came on four feet and rushed towards Kurenai, striking her down. Then he made two gusts with his arms, knocking Iroh and Zuko. But he didn't stop there, but kept beating them continuously until stopping.

**"You have no right to live!"** Hacua yelled at fire people. **"This glacier will be your grave!"**

"Don't do it, Hacua! Please! Don't do it!" Aang begged with tears in their eyes.

Hacua looked back at Aang. "Why would I let them live!? They killed all of the air people, only to get you! Genocide for genocide is all they deserve!"

Aang was close to bursting in tears "Hacua would have never done something like that! He was my friend, who taught me that nobody is evil! But what you do is evil! YOU ARE NOT HACUA!!!"

Aang started glowing from the eyes, mouth and tattoos and came rushing towards Hacua, hitting him hard. Normally Hacua would have simply blocked, but now he had snapped. He truly wasn't himself. After the genocide, it took him twenty years to be reborn, which after he started his one man crusade to destroy Fire Nation, slaying down armies and even his corrupted siblings. Fight after fight he became more and more insane. All the thoughts came rushing to his mind. But he knew what to do now.

**"I won't be able to stay much longer, so I ." **He said silently. **"They are now too weakened to take you with them so they will retreat. What you need to do now is to find yourself teachers to learn bending from. When the time of the spirits arrive, searh for avatar Roku, he will tell you everything. I will stay here and regain my sanity. I also want you to know, words are not enough, I am sorry."** After saying the last words, a tear fell from Hacua's eye. Red aura disappeared and Naruto's unconsious body landed down.

Zuko was first to get up "Now it's our chance. Let's get the avatar"

"No, prince Zuko" Iroh interrupted. "Hacua is right.We are now too weak to fight. You will have your chance later"

Zuko grunted, but understood his uncle was right. All of the fire soldiers limped back to the ship. Iroh however took his time taking Naruto with him.

"No time to take the avatar, but time to take the demon?" Zuko asked, but silenced after Iroh looked at him with a glare, that scared even him.

Aang watched as the ship left and disappeared into icebergs. He sat down. So much had happened in minutes, it was confusing. So much to do and so little time. Aang had planned to play games after leaving the pole, but he wasn't sure he had time anymore. But after Haku suggested that Aang thought about it after some sleep, he agreed.

On the next day members of the tribe helped out with preparing Aang to leave. Katara and Aang prepared to leave, while Zabuza gave the instructions.

"North Pole is in the other side of the planet. There you find teachers for waterbending and ninjutsu. But don't go straight forward, or you get caught more easily. The best way to go is by travelling through the continent of Earth Kingdom, where you can hide in the wast landscape. When you arrive to the North Pole, be careful not to insult anyone. Ninjas hiding in mist are ruthless and love to fight. Katara, before your arrival you must disguise yourself as a boy. Northern water tribe don't allow females to learn waterbending excluding healing. Sokka, now, when you become a ninja, you must know the symbols of each ninja school. Each ninja school uses a certan symbol to show who is enemy and who is ally. If you meet a person, who has an hourglass, rock, waterfall, grass or raindrops, you have met an ally, but if he has a leaf or smoke you have met an enemy. However, there are several schools I don't know. Also some ninjas work as freelancers. They don't use symbols, so watch out for them. To ensure your safety, Haku will come with you."

"What!?" Came Haku's question. "I will stay here! I promised to protect your life, Zabuza!"

"I don't need you anymore." Zabuza said. "When we originally met, I trained you to be my tool. But after I gave up on taking over the North Pole, I kept you as a companion. Finally I saw, that you have a destiny different from my own. Aang is still young and needs all the help he can have. As a last order from me, you'll protect the Avatar."

Haku nodded, understanding the situation and jumped onto Appa. Aang made a sound and the Fying Bison took off. Katara, Sokka and Haku looked down at the village somewhat sadly. On the other hand they were excited for the future journey.

Haku smiled. "Well, I do still have Momo."

Aang turned around. "Who is Momo?" He asked.

"You'll see" Haku answered. "Let us stop in the Kyoshi island for a while."

Aang smiled. "Why not, I have always wanted to ride an Elephant-Koi"


	4. Kyoshi Island part 1

Authors note: I'm sorry it has taken exceptionally long this time to make this story, but I have been a little low on inspiration lately. But there are some things I would like to bring up. There have been suggestions of putting my story to the Naruto-section. However I think it's better I keep this in here, since there are so many stories coming in the Naruto-section this story wouldn't be discovered there. Also I would like to know, if I should concentrate on this story instead of doing several stories at once.

Anyway here comes more explanations to the story: Instead of villages, there are school systems, which use the same name as the villages of the Narutoverse. There are no ANBU's in traditional sense, but certain ninjas, like Yu Yan and Dai Li (Which are ninjas in these stories) take those roles. Also every school has a kage without exeption, but it is more of a title of leader istead of symbol of power, though it can be both. And now back to the story.

Appa flew over the Southern Sea, controlled by Aang. But the big animal was not concentrating on flying, though it wasn't dangerous, since as a Sky Bison flying came naturally to him. Nonetheless he currently concentrated on thinking about the happenings of yesterday. Appa could feel the sadness and confusion of Aang, his master and friend, of the current situation. Just yesterday Aang had found out he had slept for a century, his people being destroyed and Hacua having turned into madness. Appa was also sad, not only because of these current happenings, but for the fact he was unable to comfort his lifelong friend, because even though Appa could understand Aang's speak, Aang couldn't understand his. He could only hope, that someone else could make him feel better.

"Is something wrong, Appa?" Aang asked. "You seem to be different from normal."

_"If only you could understand me"_ Appa thought sighing.

"Maybe he also misses his friends" Haku suggested. "It is hard to realise that all you knew are gone when you just awake. But what I believe is that even though your beloved ones are gone, you will see them again."

"What makes you think that, Haku?" Aang asked curiously.

"Avatar has reincarnated so many times nobody actually knows, when it begun" Haku reminded. "Thus I have a feeling that other people also reincarnate. And even if you don't meet them in here, you will surely meet them in heavens"

Aang smiled. It wasn't exactly the best comfort, but it worked. Appa also felt better.

Meanwhile at a ship sailing at the Southern Sea, general Iroh was also feeling blue. He knew the day would come, when Hacua would try to resurface inside Naruto, but he had never thought, that seeing the avatar would activate it. Iroh took a small drawing from his pocket. A blonde man, who looked like older Naruto smiled in it.

"Oh, Minato." Iroh sighed. "If only you knew what your son would have to go through.

Flashback

_The Fire Nation suffered great losses, however not on the enemy grounds, but on her own. The nine-tailed fox had found his way to the Fire Nation, planning to kill every single member of it, as a revenge for the destruction of his own people. Several warriors, both ninjas and soldiers had arrived to oppose Hacua, the airbending fox, but the fight would be a suicide. Hundreds of great men and women would never see the next day. But everybody knew defeat was not an option._

_"You are going to what!" Iroh asked from Minato after hearing his plan._

_"You heard right" Minato answered. "I am going to seal Hacua into Naruto"_

_"If I don't remember incorrectly, you will have to give up one life to transfer souls" Iroh reminded. "I hope you knew that"_

_"I know, and I will give up my life to do it" Minato said without a trace of fear._

_Iroh was silent for a while. Man, who had been his companion and friend for years, was going to sacrifice himself to save his home. Iroh was both shocked and impressed of Minato's devotion to his country. Iroh didn't want this to happen, but inside he knew they had no choice. "I will back you up" He said finally._

_"Don't forget me" Came a voice behind them. It was Jiraya, the legendary frog ninja, followed with a unit of Yu Yan archers with him. "Shinu agreed to give some back up"._

_Jiraya bit his finger and made some hand seals. A large toad appeared out of nowhere._

_**"What is it now, Jiraya?" **__He asked._

_"This is not the right place to talk gamabunta"__Jiraya said. "We are currently under attack by Hacua and we must seal him or the Fire Nation is doomed."_

_Gamabunta understood the situation, letting Minato, Iroh, Jiraya and, reluctantly, Yu Yans on his back and moved hastily towards the battlefield. Meanwhile the army was trying to hold Hacua back. However they were no match to the fox, whose bending and mysticism were those of a god._

_**"It doesn't matter if you fight, hide or run! None will survive!" **__Hacua threathened. __**"Tonight fire people will die out!"**_

_**"Your lust for vengeance has blinded you, Hacua"**__ Gamabunta said sadly. Hacua turned towards the toad._

_**"This has nothing to do with you, Gamabunta! Leave and don't come to my way!"**__ Hacua yelled. The he saw people on Gamabunta's back. __**"So you help these murderers. By doing that you have singed your death-warrant. You have no right to live, and neither do those on your back! Die!"**_

_A gigantic gust came from Hacua's tails, but Gamabunta jumped over. Yu Yans fired a large amount of arrows with exploding tags, creating a chain of explosions. Gamabunta spit some oil, which Iroh and Jiraya ignited. This made Hacua go onto defensive, which Minato wanted to. Hokage grabbed a baby, who looked like him and turned towards others._

_"This is where I leave you and this world. I will open a portal to the spirit world, which I use to seal Hacua into Naruto. But in order for the jutsu to work, I must go in front of the vortex, otherwise his soul simply leaves his body and in twenty years he will return. During the process all souls in range of the portal are sucked in, Hacua goes into Naruto and my body protects Naruto, but mine will travel to the spirit world. Since I won't be able to ask it later, my last wish is that the Fire Nation to see Naruto as a hero, who keeps our greatest enemy from returning." After his speech he made some hand seals and about ten meters upwards a spiral appeared into the sky._

_Iroh could see the soul of the fox being pulled inside the spiral. Minato jumped between the portal and Hacua, showing Naruto towards the fox. Fox's soul went into the baby, while Hokage's soul went into the portal. When the portal closed, the body of Hacua disappeared and Naruto and Minato's body fell down. Jiraya captured the baby. Everybody smiled and for a good reason._

End of flashback

But even though Minato succeeded, the accident had already happened. Instead of praised, Naruto was hated by most of the fire natives, who didn't see him as the host of Hacua, but Hacua himself. Luckily fire lord Azulon knew the truth, creating laws to protect Naruto. After Iroh adopted Naruto, he became a prince, getting also the love he needed. Naruto lived a pretty happy life, not knowing what others did, but now when Hacua reawakened, there was no other choice but to tell the truth.

"You seem to be worried, Uncle" Zuko said coming to the bow.

Iroh looked behind him. "Ah, prince Zuko" He answered. "You are right about my worries. Like you, Naruto doesn't know Hacua is inside him, but now when he came out, I am forced to tell that he is the host of one of the greatest enemies of Fire Nation. I'm not sure, what to say or do."

Zuko closed his eyes and sighed deeply. After a moment of silence he opened his eyes. "I think I know the solution" He said going back inside.

Haku leaned against a tree, watching Aang riding on an Elephant Koi. He knew it was extremely dangerous, but he trusted the avatar. Meanwhile Katara practised her waterbending and Sokka his mystic skills. Both had some problems, Katara getting hit herself by the water whip and Sokka managing to create only corpse-like clones of himself. "I'll just leave you in here for a while. I go get Mo-" He suddenly went silent, when he saw a girl dressed in a same kind of battle clothing Haku used, looking sternly at him.

"O-oh hi S-Suki! Long time no see!" He greeted the girl, knowing her well.

"Nice to see you too, traitor." Suki answered threateningly. "I can't believe you dare to show your face here after what you did to us. I thought we were friends. Shadow clone jutsu!"

Suki created a clone of herself, which captured the boomerang thrown towards her by Sokka. Sokka tried to crab another weapon, but got stopped by two other warriors. Both Katara and Aang were paralysed before they could do anything. Warriors dragged them to a village and tied them to a pole. Sokka was the first to speak.

"So you are not welcome here, Haku?" He asked.

"No, I'm not." Haku answered. "On the other hand I never was one of locals. I was found as a baby from the beach next to my dead mother and a mysterious scroll and adopted by the kyoshi warriors. I grew up in the ninja school hidden in the waves. Since I was originally an outlander I was shunned by others and my only friends were Momo and Suki. Later I met Zabuza, who was taking refuge in the island. He told that if I travelled with him I would get out my true potential. I left on that same night with the scroll found with me. But by doing that I became an exile. I guess you know the rest."

Aang looked upwards, seeing a statue of a woman in a same kind of outfit as kyoshi warriors. "I think I have an idea" He said smiling and turned towards villagers, who were surrounding them. "Listen to me, people of Kyoshi. I know Haku did wrong leaving your village, but the truth is I needed him. I am Aang, the avatar and the last member of the Air Nomads. I was forced to go into hiding, but I have returned. The reason why Haku left is that I need him as a member of my party, thus he was forced to leave without saying goodbye. As a request I would only like you to release us and give us a chance to buy some food and equipment. I don't request this as an avatar, but as the incarnation of Avatar Kyoshi"

Villagers went silent. Then they started talking with each other. Aang knew this was the moment they were unsure about the situation and listened to everybody's suggestions. Luckily the odds were on Aang's side and both he and his companions were freed. Suki came towards them.

"I believe you now, Avatar Aang. But I would like to ask you, why did you choose Haku over me, the Namikage?" She asked.

"I wanted a person, who would be a somewhat different from the others and I believe that as a Kage, you are more useful as a leader of these powerful ninjas" Aang explained.

Sokka interrupted them. "Also if I don't remember incorrectly the title Kage belongs to the strongest ninja of the school system and doesn't tell the true strenght of the owner of the title."

Suki looked angrily at him. "Are you saying that we are no good as ninjas?"

"Maybe a little. Though there are no female warriors in the South Pole"

"Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. The school is in there. Let us meet there and see what you can teach to us"

"Deal" Both of them shook hands and went to the building.

Aang looked around and saw that everybody else around him had disappeared. He decided to go around the town. Suddenly somebody grabbed him from the shoulder. It was Haku, who held a Winged Lemur on his arms. Aang eyes went wide open.

"A-a-a Winged Le-Lemur?" He said in amazement. "Where did you find him?"

Haku smiled. "Yes, it is a Winged Lemur, but I prefer calling him Momo."

"You didn't tell me Momo was a Winged Lemur."

"It came a little surprise for me too. Momo, this is Aang, say hello to Aang"

Momo looked at Aang and pressed his head on Haku's chest. Haku sighed.

"Don't be shy, Momo." he said. "Go on and say hello"

Momo looked again at Aangs direction, but repeated what he did before.

"Anyway Momo is both my pet and friend." Haku continued. "I found him on the same beach, where I was found."

"Do you know, what this means?" Aang asked with joy. "There might be some Air Nomads left in the world!"

Haku decided to keep his mouth shut for a while. Perhaps it would be better, if he stayed quiet for a while.

"Come!" He said. "I'll show you the island"

At the same time on a Fire Nation harbor in the southwestern Earth Kingdom, Commander Zhao had his own worries. Since his promotion there had been several setback, which threathened his title as an officer. A mysterious man came into his tent.

"What is it now, Orochimaru?" He asked from the man. "I hope it is not bad news"

"Indeed it is not, Commander" Orochimaru answered weith a voice like a serpent. "The Avatar has returned"

Zhao turned towards Orochimaru. "How is that possible"

"I travelled to the spirit world. When I arrived to the serpent area, I heard that Unagi had seen the Avatar, an airbender named Aang, in the Kyoshi Island."

"I know that you do nothing for free, what do you want in exhange"

"Just some troops to search for Zhangs and Gan Jins. Their beast control and moon illusions would surely be useful to me once i learn them."

"Is learning everything what mystism is capable of everything to you, Orochimaru?"

"As much as you to get as much power you are capable of getting, Zhao. On the other hand we are technically enemies due to our goals. But without each other of us helping the other one, we would both be unable to pursue them, so in theory we are friends"

"You are right, Orochimaru. So, what is your plan?"

"I'll take over Unagi's mind and body and soul to use it as a weapon either to kill or capture the Avatar."

"Just bring him alive. After all almost nobody knows about Avatar currently. If you succeed, you get your soldiers"

Orochimaru left the tent. Both men smiled. Soon they would both succeed in their plans and the alliance would be unnecessary. But it was unknown, which one would be the first to make the move to eliminate the other, but it was certain the move will happen.


	5. Kyoshi Island part 2

_Author's note: I'm sorry for taking so long again, but I am still a little short on inspiration. Nonetheless I have managed to get a new chapter and a rythm. I will now concetntrate on this, but will write other stories if I have time. By the way, is someone has wishes fo the series, just tell me and I see, what I can do. I would also like to thank all of you, who have watched, rewieved and put my stories to lists._

New dawn arrived to the Kyoshi Island. Aang and his companions had a place to sleep from the school hidden in the waves, a ninja school meant for kunoichis only normally. Despite the fact, Haku had studied in this village before and so did Sokka, though Sokka wasn't really fond to the uniforms. Both Aang and Katara had woke up and were currently travelling around the village buying groceries.

"I think we have enough vegetables" Katara pondered. "Would you like some fruits, Aang" She asked, only to discover Aang having left. Katara got little mad, but nonetheless continued shopping.

Meanwhile in the dojo, Sokka had problems with his clone jutsu and pride.

"I can't believe this" He mumbled. "All of these kunoichis can do three copies of themselves, while can do only one and that's almost dead. I'll never be a shinobi, if I can't do this. Clone Jutsu!"

Haku had watched Sokka's training for a while. "It's surprisingly difficult technique, if you have exceptionally much chakra"

"This has nothing to do with you, Haku"

"Maybe. In theory you would be a great ninja. However you have more chakra than you can control, so those techniques, which require only a small amount of chakra, are difficult to perform"

"So what are you trying to tell me?"

"Remember that shadow clone Suki performed on the beach" Sokka nodded. Haku put his hand together "Try to copy my arms and practice that" Sokka was a little suspicious, but tried anyway.

At the same time on a ship close to the Kyoshi island, Zuko and Naruto were both on the bow practising their bendings by one-on-one battle. Zuko wore his normal armor, while Naruto had a green jump-suit.

"Get ready, Zuko! Here comes a hard one!" Naruto informed jumping into the air. He then kicked a large gust towards Zuko, who easily dodged it.

"Don't inform me, Naruto." Zuko ordered. "The Avatar won't tell his moves to us. We must both use our reflexes and senses to prevent his strikes"

Naruto agreed and continued his attacks after about half an hour the fight ended. Zuko won, but just barely. Both of them smiled at each other and rose up. Iroh came towards Zuko.

"Have to say I am impressed" He said. "How did you get Naruto back into normal?"

"It wasn't an easy task" Zuko told.

Flashback

_When I went to see him, he had chained himself to the wall of the prison cells._

_"Zuko? What are you doing in here"_

_"I'm going to get you come out again"_

_"Don't come closer to me! If that thing inside me gets out you are doomed!"_

_I tried to encourage him, but to no avail. "Listen, Naruto. You cannot allow it to defeat you"_

_After that he bursted into tears. "It has defeated me already! It took my body instantly and I couldn't do anything about it! I don't even remember anything, what happened! I know about that thing's existence only from your conditions! How can I ever win something who has more power over me than I do?"_

_I was about to give up, when I remembered something. I left and came back with Naruto's old jumpsuit, which I threw in front of him._

_"Remember when you first tried to learn firebending, Naruto? At first you were sad, when instead of fire you breathed air, since nobody knew anything about bending air and even master Gai could only give you the advice to search your technique. But remember when you found it"_

_Then Naruto grabbed the jump-suit and started smiling. "Thank you, Zuko."_

End of flashback

"So you told nothing about the Hacua?" Iroh asked.

"No" Zuko answered. "He knows as much that he has a some kind of demon inside. Just not why it is there"

"I quess that is enough for now" Iroh continued. "But what do we do if the beast reawakens?"

"That's why I brought this with me." Kurenai interrupted, holding a large scroll in her arms. "Master Sarutobi believed this scroll would be in better safe in here, than in the Fire Nation. What I need to do now is to search for a jutsu to make a second seal."

"Have you gone crazy, Kurenai?" Iroh asked worried. "We don't need another sacrifice!"

Kurenai just chuckled. "I may not be Hiashi, but I know this one is not really dangerous. All I need to do is to cover his stomach with bandages and write the word Seal on them. No sacrifices or deaths."

Iroh sighed. "Okay, I let you two do, what you think is the best. But if something goes wrong, you can only blame yourselves" He said returning below the deck.

Zuko turned towards Kurenai. "Will this take long?" Kurenai shook his head. "Good, because when we are ready, we attack the Avatar."

"Good, I'll get a chance to use this" Naruto said, showing a secret weapon, which others saw as surprising, or amusing.

Aang was getting restless. There was something strange going on on the sea. Aang didn't actually see or hear it, but more like sensed it inside himself. _"Perhaps I should check this on my own" _He thought _"Guys wouldn't probably believe me if I told them now. Anyway, time to check"_ Aang flew to the beach, but saw nothing strange. Then he removed his clothes and jumped into the water. At first he saw nothing except Elephant Kois, but soon he got a vision of a some king of gigantic snake going past him. The energy came from that snake. Aang turned around to get up to the surface, but instead he saw the head of the serpent looking straight at him. Aang started swimming away with snake following him with its mouth open, trying to eat him. Aang knew he wouldn't be able to dodge the snake forever and needed a plan. He suddenly stopped moving and simply looked at the beast. Snake attacked again, but when it got to the point blank range, Aang blew out his remaining air into its mouth, using it as a catapult to fire him to the surface. Aang flew out of the water and landed on the sand, coughing out water and hailing in air. He was about to lay down to rest, when he saw a red boot right in front of him. Aang looked up and saw a familiar face.

"It must be my lucky day" Zuko said smiling, seeing Avatar next to his feet. "Shino! Kiba! Help me carry him to the ship! Hinata and Naruto, cover us!" Two kids around Aang's age, one with a dog underneath his armor and the other wearing a skull helmet, lifted Aang up. But before leaving they were stopped by a sudden yell. Everyone turned to see a large amount of Kyoshi warriors accompanied by the water siblings.

"Drop Aang right now!" Katara yelled.

Zuko took a fighting stance "Not without a fight. Everyone, attack!"

The Fire Nation soldiers came as a one flaming wall towards kyoshi warriors. But kyoshi's weren't fools: they had trained themselves not to attack directly, but rather turn opponents' power against them, easily overwhelming enemy soldiers. But the tides got turned after Kurenai and Zuko attacked together, Kurenai creating an illusion around the warriors and Zuko taking them down. Suddenly those attacked kyoshi warriors disappeared.

"Shadow clones!" Kurenai realised.

"You got right at the first try" Suki said behind them. "So you are illusionist and that friend of yours exceptional fire-" But he couldn't finish, because a big tornado swooped right in front of her, revealing a dog-like boy with a real dog.

"And I am an expert synchroniser" He said. "Name is Kiba and this is Akamaru. You two take care of the others, she is mine" Both Zuko and Kurenai nodded and changed targets. Kiba turned Akamaru to his clone and both charged towards Suki, who smiled cunningly.

Meanwhile Iroh had forced Haku into the water. "You should give up, young man" He said. "Your moving is slowed down in the water and you are out of needles, but I can still fire at a long range."

Haku just smiled. "In the water I am never out of needles" He said, forming a large sphere of water, which he turned into several needles. All with moving only one hand. "I prefer to hide the fact, that I'm a waterbender, but since you die now it doesn't matter." Hundreds of ice needles flew towards Iroh, who managed to survive only by melting those ones who would have hit him. Iroh started to retreat to the beach with Haku following him.

Sokka was again taking on Shino. The battle was now much harder than it was in the south pole, since Shino had revealed, that his true speciality was summoning bugs from inside his armour. Or at least it looked like it, since they came out from the eyes of the mask. Sokka spinned his boomerang in his hand to take care of some bugs, but there was too many of them to kill them all. Sokka ther the boomerang, did some hand seals and suddenly there were several boomerangs going at Shino. Shino dodged them but was captured by three Sokkas, who hit him hard

Katara on the other hand fought Hinata. Katara had been on the winning by attacking at long range, but suddenly Hinata used some of his agility to dodge the water and hit Katara. Katara could feel a some kind of pulse going right through his body, as if Hinata's hands were much stronger than they looked like. Then Katara realised Hinata used chakra to damage his organs. Katara couldn't use chakra, but had seen, what it could do after watching Sokka's training. Katara changed strategy, moving from attacking to cleverness. When Hinata came close again, Katara captured her hands by the water and pushes her back.

But the greatest fight happened in the air between Naruto and Aang. Aang used his glider to stay in the air and to fight, while Naruto had put on a bird-suit.

"We meet again, Avatar" Naruto spoke. "But this time the creature inside me will not help you"

"Maybe not, but I will find a away to release him" Aang answered. "By the way, why that ridiculous outfit?"

"This "ridiculous" outfit is my secret weapon. It improves my airbending like your glider. The best way to kill a boy who flies like a butterfly is to fly like a bird"

"I have to admit, it is clever, but it won't help you against this"

Aang used his staff to create a straight line of wind, which Naruto dodged. Naruto came to a close range and threw both of his fists into Aang's stomach, making him fly to the distance. Aang soon regained consciousness and came rushing towards Naruto, but instead of hitting him directly, Aang flew behind Naruto when he tried to strike again and hit him with his staff. When Naruto flew away, Aang looked around and saw the whole village on fire. He realised it was the work of the firebenders. _If we continue fighting, the whole village will be destroyed. We must leave._ Having no time to lose, Aang flew down to Appa.

"Listen, Appa" He said. "We must leave. Help me get Katara, Sokka and Haku"

Appa nodded and took Aang on his back. Everyone felt bad for leaving the villagers, but they realised it was the only way to save them. But when they had reached the sky, Naruto came rushing again. Suddenly the snake, who had hunted Aang, came right in front of Aang's group, but instead of Appa it blew a stream of water at Naruto, who flew back towards the beach. Then it extinguished the flames of the village. Aang and his friends flew away.

_"I hope this is enough for me to thank you, Avatar" _Said a mysterious voice in Aang's head.

_"Who are you?"_ Aang asked through his thoughts

_"I am known as Unagi. When we met first time, I was controlled by a Fire National mystic named Orochimaru. But when you defeated me, I was free again. I can't do much, but I will tell you this: Orochimaru is very powerful ninja, who wants everything mystism can give him. He works under a navy commander Zhao, whose lust for power is equal to Orochimaru's lust for jutsus. I know this, because I still have some of Orochimaru's memories. If you ever find either of them, stay away from them"_

The link disappeared like it had come. Aang wondered it for a long time.

Meanwhile in the Omashu, three men were sitting on a table having a feast. One of them, an old, strange-looking man in a decorated outfit, was King Bumi, leader of the Omashu. He sat next to his two guests, both of them wearing dark cloaks and straw hats. Other one had a large sword on his back. Bumi started talking.

"You may wonder why I have summoned you two in here." He spoke "Especially since the other one is from the Fire Nation. Though there is nothing strange for a Water Tribal"

Both of the men got a little surprised, but then chuckled removing their hats and opened their cloaks, revealing their homeland garments and scarred headbands.

Bumi looked confused. "I didn't ask you to strip"

The waterbender was about to laugh, but controlled himself. The firebender started talking.

"We have both discarded our loyalty to our nations" He spoke. "Tough I do wonder, why you called us. We normally do missions, which are less priced than ninja schools perform, yet you chose us. Why did you do that?"

King spoke again. "The mission I am asking you to do is impossible to Eath Kingdom ninjas. Well, maybe excluding Ba Sing Se's Dai Li, but they work only to the Earth King, excluding times of war, which the Fire Nation invasion luckily isn't. Anyway, your mission is to free captured earthbenders from prison rigsmade entirely of metal. They are miles away at the sea, so earthbending is useless, however you can still bend there. Of course since Itachi is from the Fire Nation, he can leave this mission. And if he does, Kisame can also go, if he thinks he can't do it alone. Of course then I must forget this mission, but that's life"

"No need to worry about it, King Bumi" Itachi said. "I will perform this mission gladly"

"That's great! We will get hundreds, no, thousands of warriors to home!" King started dancing on the table, but stopped as soon he had begun and returned to his place. "You may sleep in the guest room and go to the mission tomorrow.

Itachi and Kisame left the table and started walking to the guest room. Kisame turned towards Itachi.

"Are you sure you want to do this!" He asked. "The old man is lunatic and you are fighting against you own country"

"I hate the Fire Nation." Itachi answered. "Why do you think I destroyed my clan before leaving her. Besides the Akatsuki does every single mission it can, regardless to the customer or target. Haven't you severed your ties to the Northern Tribe?"

Kisame stayed calm. "Of course I have, except not everyone knows that"

"By the way I forgot to tell you something" King Bumi said from their behind, "That mask of your's, Kisame, It's great"

Kisame touched his skin. "Yes, mask" Both of them kept going.


	6. New allies

_Author's note: Yet again I have managed to create another chapter to these stories. I would fist like to thank Micheal the Archangel for the ideas to the series (don't worry, I remember them). If you all want to see the ideas posted to me, I will put them in this section. Also in case there comes some complication, I'll put a voting section. And of course if you have more ideas in your mind, feel free to tell them. After all I haven't even closely created the whole story. Anyway, enjoy this new part and wish luck for inspiration_

Itatchi and Kisame travelled around the Omashu, looking for supplies to their next journey.

"So you are saying these gabbages are the best in the Omashu?" Kisame asked from a merchant, whose cart was full of cabbages.

"Oh yes, absolutely!" Merchant answered. "If a cabbage gets better from this, it is not a cabbage anymore"

Kisame looked closer to one of the cabbages. "I'll take six" Kisame took the cabbages, paid them and put in his backpack. Soon Itachi came to see Kisame.

"Do you have food?" He asked.

"Indeed I do" Kisame said showing his backpack. "Mine is already full. How about you?"

"I haven't really concentrated on collecting supplies"

"Why? What would be more important than getting supplies?"

"Finding the Avatar for example"

Kisame sighed. "You take finding him too seriously, Itachi. It's not like Avatar would fall form the sky"

Suddenly a large sled holding four youngsters fell right in front of Itachi and Kisame, landing on top of Kisame's backpack.

"NOO!! MY CABBAGES!!" The merchant screamed.

Kisame looked at him. "What are you complaining about? I bought them already!"

A young boy with an arrow on his head rose from the sled. "Look, I'm really, really sorry about this" He apologised. "If there is anything I can do to repay your groceries..."

Kisame angrily took the boy from the neck. "Groceries? What about my backpack? It was made by the best weavers of the North Pole! And now it is crushed underneath your sled. I should do the same to you!"

"Ahem! Kisame!" Itachi interrupted and pointed at the arrow. "Maybe we should let king Bumi say, what do we do about the Avatar."

"King Bumi?" The boy said amazed. "I didn't know the mad scientist was a royal."

Kisame looked at the boy in the eyes. "Avatar or not, I hope you'll be punished for ruining my backpack and perhaps for insulting the king. Itachi, get those others!"

Before long all six were in front of king Bumi. The arrowheaded boy spoke first.

"It's good to see you again, Bumi" He said. But the king only looked angrily at him. "Don't you recognise me, Bumi? It's me, Aang!"

"I have never seen you, boy" Bumi answered. Aang looked down sadly, while king started laughing. "Gotcha! You should have seen your face, Aang!"

Aang looked at Bumi with anger in his eyes. "Why did you do that for? It was not fun!"

"I'm sorry, Aang" He apologised in guilt. "I just couldn't control myself. But we have another thing to talk about. Why are you two still here?"

"We were buying supplies for our journey, when these two flew right down onto my backpack" Kisame explained showing his ruined backpack. "I demand a some kind of sepaying for this. Oh, and by the way, Aang called you a mad scientist back there."

King laughed. "Well I am not mad about being called mad scientist because that's what I am. However I do understand, that even though it was an accident, that backpack was rather expensive. What do you say if Aang, Katara, Sokka and Haku would help you on one of the prison rigs?"

"I accept the offering" Itachi answered. "I believe Avatar needs to know about the enemy he is facing"

The others also agreed to the suggestion. Soon they got the supplies rebought and left the Omashu. After half of a day of travel they arrived to a town, where several earthbenders had been arrested by Fire Nation soldiers. If someone wanted to find a prison rig, this was a good place to start. Itachi told them to land close to a dried river. There they met a youth named Haru, who told that he had secretly sent a request for help to the Omashu. On that night at Haru's home, Itachi explained their plan.

"I am actually happy for the fact that you four are with us, it makes our plan easier. First of all Haku needs to disguise himself to a leaf ninja. Haru will attack a random Fire Nation squadron, while Haku paralyzes him with a needle. After that is done, Haku will travel with the ship going to the prison rig and inflirtrate to the other soldiers. Meanwhile the rest of us will fly to the rig by Appa, following the ship. When we get there, we silently defeat the guards and capture the warden of the prison. Since the earthbenders have likely lost their hope after being so long out of land, having lost their touch to the earth and thus a part of themselves. Which means, that we cannot count for their help, meaning, we must work silently. On the other hand there is unlikely to be a lot of ninjas, so that shouldn't be too difficult. After we have defeated everyone, we capture all the ships and help all of the prisoners to escape, even if we have to use force. Are there any questions?" Everybody shook their heads. "Good. Now we must collect strenght and tomorrow we start our plan."

On the next day the plan was set in motion. A squadron of Fire Nation soldiers was patrolling the city, when suddenly one of them was thrown away by a rock. Others looked at the direction where the boulder had flew and saw a young man holding another even bigger one.

"No more shall Fire Nation roam these lands!" He yelled. "For the Earth-UNGH!" Suddenly the kid fell down and the boulder with him. A smoke ninja had thrown a paralyzing needle to his neck.

"Are you guys alright" The ninja asked.

"Pretty much" The leader of the squadron answered. "Thanks for helping to capture this earthbender"

"I did only my duty to the Fire Nation" Ninja continued. "I was sent here to help guard the closest prison rig."

"In that case it is your lucky day. You can come with us to the rig, when we take this criminal there"

Little did the soldiers of the ship know, that when they travelled to the prison rig, a large animal carrying five humans followed them. When the ship got to the rig, the prison warden came to "say hello".

"Welcome to the prison rig 5. My name is none of your business, so you can simply call me Warden. You propably know already, why you are here, so I won't bother you with that either. However you are not here exactly as prisoners, but more like honored guests. Despite that this place is still a prison, so unless you want to be punished rather cruelly, you'dbetter to co-operate with us. Also you should know this place is completely made metal, which you are unable to bend, but it doesn't prevent us from bending, so if you try mutiny, we have he upper hand. Since you are newcomers, I'll allow you to meet the other guests and rest for a while, and you start working tomorrow."

After the speech Haru and the other prisoners were taken to a large open area, where there were other prisoners. He saw a man who he hadn't seen in five years, his father Tyro. Haru went right to him, who also seemed to recognise Haru.

"Could it be?" Tyro asked from himself. "Is that you, Haru?"

"Yes, it's me, father" Haru answered putting his arms around his father. "It has been so long since we met last time. But you don't need to worry, we'll get you out of here"

Tyro looked at his son and sighed. "You shouldn't have tried it. You can escape with the rescue team, if you want. I stay here."

"What are you saying, father? Of course you come with us"

"I'm afraid I can't. I'm not saying I don't miss freedom, but I have no reason to escape. I have lost my touch to the ground, like all the others. Listen to me, Haru. Get contact to the rescue squadron and tell them to retreat. Leave this place until you become like me."

Haru left his father and sat towards the shore, putting his head on his knees. On the night Haku came to meet Haru.

"We are ready to start the operation, Haru" He spoke. "Just tell when you're ready"

"I'm not sure if I want to leave" Haru answered. "These people have lost their hopes completely. I want to stay and help them"

Haku stayed silent for a moment. "Is there any way to get their hopes back"

"Maybe if they could get their touch to the earth back, but how is that possible in a place like this"

Haku leaves Haru and gets to the rescue squadron's hideout. There he tells everything to the group. Everybody starts to think.

"Earthbenders can bend metal, just like I can" Itachi told "But to do that you need years of practice to be able to find the impurities to use. And to these people it is out of question. We need impurified earth"

Then Sokka got an idea. "Why didn't I realise this earlier? This whole rig is full of coal!" The others turned towards Sokka. "This place is used to make ships to the Fire Nation, which need coal, that comes from mines, thus being earth. So there must be a storage for this coal, which we could use to arm the earthbenders. We need to find this storage and get the coal to the earthbenders. Listen, I have a plan"

The plan was set in motion immediately. Itachi and Haku returned to the earthbenders, paralyzing the guards on the way. Meanwhile rest of the team started looking for the storage. After finding it Sokka discovered that it was almost right underneath the prisoner area, though several meters underground. Kisame banged the roof with his sword creating an echo, which Itachi, who had pressed himself to the floor felt. Itachi bended the metal, opening a path to the coal to travel, which Aang used to push the coal up. When everybody were back to the prisoner area, they gave two pieces of coal, one for each hand, to all of the earthbenders. When the dawn came and the prisoners woke up, they felt something they hadn't felt in years.

Haru returned to his father "It's all right, father. It's coal, part of the earth, and we have more if you need."

Tyro levitated the pieces of coal. "I can't believe it. After all these years I can still bend earth"

"Drop that coal!" Came a voice, it was the warden. "You may have returned their touch to the earth, but you can never get their courage back. You six failed" Then he discovered that none of the earthbenders had dropped the coal. "I said drop the coal! DROP IT NOW!!" everybody prepared their fighting positions. "Fine, you can only blame yourselves. Attack!"

Guards of the rig fought well, but were no match to the outnumbering earthbenders and the rescue team. Less than a minute the rig had been taken over and everybody prepared to leave. When the ships travelled back to the Earth Kingdom, Sokka came to meet Itachi in person.

"You are not an earthbender, are you?" Sokka asked. "When we were on the rig, you used metal, but never even touched the coal"

Itachi looked at Sokka. "You are a smart kid" He admitted. "And yes, I'm not an earthbender but a firebender, a fact I hate. You see, I invented the fire form of metalbending after travelling to Northern Air Temple and meeting a scientist know only as the Mechanist. He gave me an object, that can bend metal" Itachi gave a U-shaped object in Sokka's hands.

Sokka looked closely to the strange object. "What is this?" He finally asked.

"A magnet. If you put it close to certain small objects made of metal, they will attach to it. But it is very difficult to attach two magnets to each other. I learned to bend metal by accident. Some firebenders can also bend electricity, which lightnings are, for example. One day I was practicing my electricitybending, when my lightning accidentally hit a metal plate. Having missed my true target I started creating a new one, when suddenly that same metal plate came right into me. I stopped and the plate dropped down. After a several more tries I could move the metal. According to Mechanist as an electricitybender I have a personal magnetic field or something, which I can use to magnetise other metals. But I didn't lie about earthbenders being able to bend metal. The difference is that when earth form uses the impurities in the metal, while fire form uses the metal itself." Itachi went quiet for a while, but continued. "Maybe you should meet the Mechanist, Sokka. You two have a lot in common. He lives in the Northern Air Temple close to the North Pole. I believe Aang knows the way. When you are there, could you help him in one thing? His home has been discovered by the Fire Nation, who demand him to create weapons to them. In exchange though they also allowed him to establish a ninja school to give him additional funds. Most of the ninjas are banished Fire National ninjas, who may or may not still hold nationalism in their hearts. When you go there look for a ninja named Yugito, she is my friend and also see if the cloud ninjas could help Mechaninst. They may either hate or love their home, but Yugito only cares about the Mechanist. She also has the same kind of secret as true hero of the Fire Nation, who is hated by those, who should respect him."

Sokka listened intensely. "I'll try to help both of them if I can"

Meanwhile Aang was walking around the ship and saw Katara looking angrily at the sea. He want closer.

"Is something wrong, Katara?" Aang asked. "Looks like you would have lost something"

Katara sighed. "I haven't lost anything. I just have a strange feeling, that I was supposed to have a much bigger role in this story than using my waterbending to knock a few guards. If I don't remember incorrectly I have barely spoke. It is like something was stolen from you, yet there is no way to prove it. I know it is crazy, but that's how I feel. Am I going crazy or something"

"If you have a feeling that your role is changed you're not" Kisame, who had heard the conversation, answered. "I'm a neutral person, but I have a feeling I'm supposed to be evil. The thing is that Fire Nation is seen as evil and Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom as good. The Akatsuki works for all of them, but at the same time we take ourselves as the top priority. I just wonder should I work for the Fire Nation if I'm evil, or would I be good for fighting against them?"

"Personally I like you being neutral" Katara answered. "It's good to have some other opinions about this war"

"Besides you don't have a face of an evil person, Kisame" Aang added.

Kisame laughed looking his reflection at the water. "Youre a weird pup, Aang, a weird pup"


	7. Winter solstice

Hello again everyone. Sorry for keeping you waiting again. Anyway this part of the story may take a weird twist to the story and there might be some, who don't like it, but I will continue on that line, because I also want to tell about my opinions about the bendings. Thus this story will also contain possible explanations of for example why waterbenders can heal or earthbenders hurl rocks, but the story will still go pretty much on a normal path.

Katara woke up after a strange dream. She had been seeing that dream since the purification of the forest spirit. It was a good thing Aang succeeded, otherwise Haku and Sokka would still be prisoners of the spirit. Katara wondered, why she was the one who saw that dream instead of some of the boys, who had been in touch with the spirit world, though she might as well be able to do that for the same reason. The group was currently travelling to the Fire Nation in order to meet Avatar Roku in his temple, which Sokka seemed not to like.

"Why are we risking our lives to meet some guy who has been dead for over a hundred years?" Sokka asked about seventh time.

"Because we don't have a choice" Aang answered. "Hacua told me to search Avatar Roku during the time of the spirits, meaning the Winter Solstice. When I was in the spirit world I met a dragon, who showed me a vision of a temple in the Fire Nation. That's where we we must go"

"That's possibly the most ridiculous idea ever." Sokka continued "If I don't remember incorrectly, that creature almost killed us all. And since when have we thrusted fever dreams?"

"Fever dreams?" Aang asked angrily. "Without that dream you would still be imprisoned to the spirit world!"

"Enough, you two!" Haku interrupted. "Fighting is not going to take us anywhere. Let's just go to the temple so we can return"

Both Aang and Sokka returned to their jobs, while Haku came next to Katara.

"You also seem to have something in your heart" He said to her. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"It's not really much" Katara answered. "I just have been seeing a dream."

"Why don't you tell it to me, maybe I can explain it" Haku suggested. Katara looked around before starting.

_Dream_

_I was walking with you and Sokka in a some sort of temple, where we met Aang in front of several mysterious objects and told us to choose one of them. I chose a chalice full of shining water and sapphires with my necklace's symbol on it's surface. You took an eye, which was half black and half white and put it in place of your right eye, while Sokka took a large book with writing only he seemed to understand. After that you left, saying you would be needed elsewhere. After that three children covered in robes and one girl dressed in an armor came in. The shortest of the robed ones took a gourd full of sand, while the middle one took a basket full of different dolls and the biggest one a fan decorated with arrows similar to those of Aang or Appa. Then those three left saying the same thing as you did, while the girl in the armor stayed. She grabbed a pig made of stone with two rubies as eyes. The girl removed the eyes saying she wouldn't need them, however she didn't leave like you did. After that appeared five Fire Nationals, three kids and two adults, into the room. We prepared to attack, but Aang said he had waited for them and asked about a sixth one whom he was supposed to give a dragon made of fire. Suddenly a large wind blew inside and then everything went black._

_Dream end_

"After that is over I woke up. You see, I have a strange feeling there is something important in it."

Haku closed his eyes and thought. "I have never heard about a dream like that." He finally said. "But I believe it has something to do with us being Aang's companions. Those gifts are most likely some kind of power we will awaken. Those others are propably those who will come to help Aang. Some are for a longer time and others for a shorter. Maybe even those Fire Nationals, who stalk us may some day be allies. If that dream continues to appear, try to see it further. That information will propably be useful."

"Look at that!" Aang shouted. "There is the temple!"

"I certainly hope we don't meet Fire Nationals" Sokka continued still sceptical.

Little did they know that Zuko's forces were following them from a safe distance. Lucky to them a strong wind blew to the opposite direction, hiding their smoke perfectly.

"At last the luck is on my side" Zuko grinned. "Can you see them Hinata?"

"Y-yes, Prince" Hinata answered. "The wi-wind makes it a l-little difficult, b-but I ca-can make it"

"But I do wonder, why they are going to this direction?" Iroh wondered. "They are going to the Fire Nation"

"The Temple of Roku" Kurenai answered. "When Hacua got free, I captured some words from his speak. About time of the spirits and meeting of Roku. Logically the best options are Winter Solstice and Temple of Roku. By the way, you can stay here, I believe I have enough strenght to take it from here."

Iroh looked at kurenai with amazement. "Are you saying you are going to fly?" Kurenai nodded, to which Zuko looked even more confused.

"If I don't remember incorrectly the only one of us able to fly is Naruto" He said. "How are you supposed to fly without airbending?"

"By firebending" Kurenai explained. Others looked at her weirdly. "Sometimes when practicing you might have been blown backwards by the flames. The fireflying follows the same principal. This technique is mostly kept in secret to hide our full potential. It is also difficult to learn and can only be used when the power of fire is exceptionally strong, like during the Winter Solstice, when the sun doesn't go down. It is also the very same technique used to defeat the Air Nomads a hundred years ago."

Zuko spoke. "If you are going to the temple, take me with you"

Kurenai shook her head. "I don't have enough chi to carry both me and you. We would both fall into the sea around halfway"

Suddenly Naruto interrupted. "What if we both carried Zuko at the same time?" He suggested.

Both Kurenai and Iroh found it possible and agreed. Naruto jumped on Zuko's back and Zuko grabbed Kurenai's waist. Kurenai put her arms and legs on fire and Naruto started flapping his hands. Soon they were all airborne and flew at high speed towards the temple.

Meanwhile Aang's group had already inflirtrated the temple and were moving silently. Soon they however discovered being lost.

"Brilliant, just brilliant!" Sokka complained. "We are inside a Fire Nation temple with no idea, where to go."

Haku pulled a needle from his pocket. "Then we need a guide. Arm yourselves."

Everyone went hiding. Suddenly one Fire Sage passed them. Haku gave the signal and all four surrounded the Sage.

"Okay, firebender!" Sokka spoke. "Tell us where to go or you'll be sorry"

"Sokka!" Katara scolded. "I'm sorry about my brother, he's not exactly the smartest of us. Anyway we are not going to hurt you. We only need to get Aang to a place, where he can meet Avatar Roku so we can leave."

Fire Sage chuckled. "Don't worry children. I was going to help you before you came. My name is Shyu and I'm the youngest Fire Sage. But this is not a good place to talk. Follow me and I'll explain everything."

Shyu led them to a secret passage. During the travel he told about the history of the Temple, of it's former glory and the loss of hope after Aang's disappearance after Fire Lord's growing power. The passage was long, but eventually they arrived to the next door, which led to a large room with a gate containing machinery and five holes side by side.

"Now comes the hard part."Shyu said. "That gate needs to be opened with five fireblasts. After that the gate open's to the shrine."

"Maybe we can help" Came a voice behind them. It was Naruto, standing between two pillars smiling cleverly. Soon Zuko, Kurenai and rest of the Fire Sages came from behind the pillars with fireballs ready.

Aang's buddies armed themselves. "What are you doing in here?" Katara asked. "If you are here to take Aang, you won't succeed"

"Actually we will" Naruto answered. "You see, we have fire, which you need and you have The Avatar, who we need. So here is a suggestion: We will give you the access to the Roku's shrine, where you can do whatever you need to do. After that Aang comes with us and you all, including the traitor, can leave this country unharmed. On the other hand if you want to fight and gain nothing it's pretty much the same to me, it doesn't matter if we get the Avatar dead or alive. It's your choice."

Aang looked around and saw he had no choice. "I agree to the suggestion" Everyone else agreed too.

"Also I and Naruto come with you" Zuko continued. "Just to make sure you won't brake your promise. And your weapons stay here"

Companions dropped their weapons while sages opened the door. All six entered the shrine at the same time. Inside the shrine a statue of Avatar Roku was touched by the sunlight to the forehead. Suddenly the shrine disappeared and was replaced by clouds full of people with shining eyes. In front of them wasn't however standing Avatar Roku, but a strange dragonlike creature, with four tails each containing one element. The creature looked like it wasn't exactly masculine nor feminine, but a sort of combination. It opened it's eyes, which also shined white light. Everybody got a little scared, but stayed put.

"I am Avatar Boodfa." Creature said with an angelish voice. "The fourth sacred beast with power over all the elements and the first Avatar in existence"

Aang walked closer to Boodfa. "It's an honor to meet you, but I am searching for Avatar Roku. Have you seen him?"

"I am Avatar Roku" Boodfa said smiling. "I am also Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen and a thousand anothers who have passed. My other current name is Aang."

"Hold it! Hold it!" Aang interrupted in confusion. "You are me?"

Boodfa nodded. "Just like I am all the Avatars ever born and they are also me. In the beginning, me and my siblings bended everything to existence, after which Supreme god brought chakra to assist chi. When we all went to sleep, I let my essence travel around the world allowing myself to be reincarnated through Aeons, preventing wars and disasters."

"Are you saying there has been wars before the war against Fire Nation" Aang asked, to which Boodfa nodded again.

"Human race is good, but if a god can be corrupted, so can humans." Boodfa explained. "The Avatar cycle began after the wars brought by benders and mystics. Sometimes Avatars live their whole lifes without a trouble in sight, but mostly Avatars live in the time of a great war, that can effect everything. And just like the Avatars, have wars come from all the Four Nations. Sometimes Avatars are too late to prevent the conquering and the next Avatar undoes it. Sometimes the wars are prevented before they happened. There have also been cases when Avatars started the wars, either intentionally or unintentionally."

"But I am only a young boy. How can I defeat a whole Nation?"

"A few times Avatars stood alone against the enemy, but mostly they had allies. Your friends will be invaluable during your travels so never leave them. But this time Fire Nation is exeptionally strong, so I will give you all a gift and knowledge. Over ten thousand years ago, Moon Civilization, the ancestors of the Water Tribes, invaded the Asteroid Continent, Sun Empire and Star Cities. Even the combined forces of the three were no match to Moon People, who slowly turned the planet into ice. But when all hope seemed lost, a young woman appeared out of nowhere and with her allies defeated the Moon Civilization. She was Avatar Zalina, Sun Warrioress and my 674th incarnation."

"It was a nice story, I guess, but how does it help me?"

"During the time of the ancients, benders could bend several elements beyond the control of people of these days. The clean forms stayed in each civilization, but the more complicated forms appeared on different bendings at the same time. But instead of their bending power, their main source was their inventiveness and research. Finally they didn't just bend their elements, but laws of nature behind them. Zalina was the greatest example of the ancients, because she found and controlled the fifth element"

Everyone got shocked from what they heard. Aang was amazed. "Is there a fifth element?" He asked. "What is it?"

"This element is so mysterious it doesn't have a name" Boodfa explained. "Zalina never told anyone about the element, because she was afraid it would be used as a weapon during the next war. Ancients gave it several names, like aether, space, void or heaven, which may be correct or incorrect. Whatever the name is, Zalina has kept it a secret even from the Avatars. According to her words, only one with a soul of an ancient can unlock the secret to the fifth element"

"That soul has been found" Came a voice from the clouds. A young woman dressed in multicolored armor with dragon symbols appeared in front of the six. "I believe you already know, who I am. I don't normally greet people, who come here, but now I make an exception. All of you are needed to find the fifth element. But for me it took twenty years to find it. So I have desided to give all of you a gift to ease your task.

"That dream" Katara thought aloud. "It was about this"

"You have great understanding, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe" Zalina said touching Katara's hands "Thus you are worthy of getting your waterbending to full potential"

"There must be a reason to this" Sokka thought. "An illusion, hallucination or at least something"

"There is, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe" Zalina now touched Sokka's forehead. "You have doubt and will to know, making you worthy of the most important gift, Knowledge of the ancients. With that knowledge you can read the ancient texts, which hide the secret of bending. You can also create ancient technology, which I believe is to you liking.

"I know when I can trust someone." Haku spoke. "You are not lying and you know what we need"

"That's correct, Haku of Kyoshi Island" Zalina answered touching Haku's eyes. "The eyes of thruth will help you see everything necessary." Finally se turned towards Naruto and Zuko. "You both are also worthy for gifts, but unfortunately your hearts won't accept them. Perhaps some day, when your hearts are correct, you have your gifts"

"Why are you helping them?" Zuko asked confused. "You're a firebender like me and Naruto. You should be helping us."

"Fire Nation is no longer a civilization. It is a disease." Zalina explained. "Do you want to be the carriers of the disease, or cures to it, Zuko of the House of Daimyo and Naruto of the Uzumaki clan. You both want to capture the Avatar, which I cannot forgive. You both have the roads to good and evil. You must choose which one to travel. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Haku, I will distract the enemy, use that moment to escape"

Outside Fire Sages and Kurenai awaited. Suddenly large flames filled the room. Everyone took cover. After the flames died, Kurenai saw Naruto and Zuko in front of the gate, but Aang's group or their weapons were nowhere to be found. Kurenai sighed, they would have to keep working.

Meanwhile in the Earth Kimgdom. Zhao and Orochimaru were sitting on a table drinking tea and talking about their next plans, when a Firebending soldier appeared dragging a shackled young boy. Orochimaru rose up.

"Well if it isn't Jet, the leader of the Freedom Fighters" He said smiling.

"I should have know it was you, Orochimaru." Jet answered with anger. "If you are going to kill me like you killed my parents, then do it"

Zhao chuckled. "I'm afraid not, Jet. You are allowed to live, though for your friends to live, all of you must work for the Fire Nation for the rest of your lives"

Jet boiled with hatred, but stopped to think. They would let him go away, but if he left, they would kill his friends. He didn't have an option. "I obey you."

"Good, very good." Orochimaru said. He walked next to Jet and bit him into neck. A strange mark appeared.

"What have you done to me!?" Jet shouted.

"I gave you one of my cursed seals. If you or your friends try anything, I will take over your body and make you kill your friends. On the other hand it also increases your power several times when you use it yourself. That is if you survive"

After that Jet fainted and guards took him away.

"What if he doesn't survive" Zhao asked.

"He does" Orochimaru answered. "Jet is too stubborn to simply die. Also he will obey us as long as he 'knows' I can control him. We now have to get Freedom Fighters ready for the next part of our plan"

Both of the men laughed. All the pieces were falling in place for them.


	8. Meeting of the sages

_It has taken a while again to make a new chapter to the story, but here I am again. It may take weeks or months toget something ready (really short attention span), but I can promise you this, more will come. As always, enjoy, ask, request, rewiew, whattéver you want. (As long as you don't flame). Anyway enjoy._

* * *

Sokka was nervous, which wondered even himself. Normally he would be confident about his skills to the point of annoying others, but this time he doubted his choice. Of course it was Sokka's idea to walk instead flying in hopes of being safe from the Fire Nation didn't feel so safe anymore. The forest did in theory give them better cover from fire army, but still Sokka had a strange feeling of being watched.

"I also feel like I'm being watched" Haku said suddenly, startling Sokka.

"Please, don't scare me like that" He asked. "And by the way, what gives you the right to read my thoughts?"

"Remember that time in the temple?" Haku asked pointing his eye. "Eye of truth"

"Well congratulations!" Sokka answered sarcastically. "For now my knowledge of the Ancients has no use whatsoever"

"It will be eventually, brother" Katara comforted creating spirals with her water. "Mine is also somewhat useless now, but it will improve, when we get to the North Pole"

Little did they know that a group of youths were following them through the forest, led by Jet.

"We must ambush them extremely quietly" He told to his troops. "Avatar's bending powers far surpass those of a normal man. He also has a waterbender and two ninjas with him. Mistakes are not an option, so everything must work pefrectly. Longshot distracts the ninjas while Sneers and Smellerbee attack. Meanwhile Duke and Pipsqueak take down the waterbender. As for myself, Avatar is mine. Are there any questions?"

Smellerbee raised her hand. "Why are we now working for the Fire Nation? I thought we were sworn enemies."

Before Jet could speak, Longshot tapped his neck. Others understood that Jet was forced to work for them.

"It is a sad thing to happen" Came a voice in the middle of the group. It was Haku hanging upside down from a twig. "You need more than a surprise attack to defeat me. I think we should talk, but first..." He then threw spikes on each of the group paralysing them.

However there were others watching them from the trees: A girl dressed in a fire warrior's armour holding a flute in her hand and a boy dressed entirely in leaves and possessing six arms, making him resemble a spider.

"It appears Jet's troops failed" The spider-boy said. "It's time to take the matter in our own hands. Let's go, Tayuya!"

"No Kidomaru!" Tayuya forbade. "Lord Orochimaru ordered us only to look after Jet and report the situations and that's what we'll do."

Kidomaru reluctantly agreed. He liked to fight, but knew better not to disobey orders. Both ninjas left the place silently.

* * *

At the same on the ground Sokka interrogated Jet, who was tied to a tree with his friends.

"We are not going to hurt you or anything" Sokka started. "We only want to know, why you are attacking us. Maybe we can help each other."

Jet looked at Longshot, who nodded. Thus knowing they could trust them, Jet spoke. "I am Jet, leader of the freedom fighters. We fight against the Fire Nation. Two days ago, when we were trying to blow up the dam close by, fire troops ambushed us. Now we were ordered to capture you admiral Zhao and his right hand Orochimaru, who..."

Aang gasped from shock. "Orochimaru?"

Jet turned his eyes towards Aang. "Do you know him?" He asked.

"You could say so" Aang answered. "Few weeks ago he made a giant snake attack me. Apparently he sent you to do the same."

"That would explain, why it extinguished the flames in the village" Katara continued. "What do you know about this Orochimaru, Jet?"

"Wait!" Sokka interrupted. "I was supposed to ask the questions!"

"I don't really care about who asks the questions" Jet answered to the fighting. "Anyway, I know this Orochimaru pretty well. After all he killed my parents"

_Jet's story_

_"Orochimaru is extremely cruel, even to a Fire National. He travels around the world, searching for jutsus and secrets of immortality. Several warriors, ninjas and scientists have fallen after meeting him and my parents were no exception. Both my mom and dad were jonins of a ninja school in the village me and my friends grew up. About ten years ago the village were attacked by fire ninjas led by Orochimaru. Ninjas of our village fought valiantly, but were no match to Fire Nation's elite ninjas. All I could do was to hide and watch when they killed my parents and took away the scroll, which contained the jutsus of our village. Only I, Smellerbee and Longshot survived. On that day I swore to fight against the Fire Nation with all my passion and destroy them."_

_End of Jet's story_

Aang and his friends were shocked from what they had heard, especially Katara, who was close to crying. Sokka, however, wasn't very convinced.

"So what do you want us to do now?" He asked. "Help you defeat Orochimaru?"

"No, no!" Jet screamed in shock. "If you do that, he will activate the seal in my body and make me attack you all. Besides even if I didn't have it, his camp is full of ninjas. And just Orochimaru is strong enough to defeat us all. For me it is good enough if you just escaped beyond his grasp"

"No, we will help!" Katara said. "There must be a way to release you from that seal and we will find it"

Sokka looked at his sister. "Since when have you been so determined to help someone?"

"We just can't go and leave him to slavery" Katara answered.

"Well spoken young lady" Came a voice. A man with large white hair dressed in red and grey outfit stood next to them. "I saw you close by and decided to help."

Sokka grabbed his boomerang. "I have a few questions to you. One: Who are you? Two: How did you get to us without being seen? And Three: Why would a Fire National help us?"

The man chuckled. "Answers in that order are these. I am Jiraiya, Toad Sage. This forest is crawling with spies, so I wonder why you saw only those six. And the reason I would like to help you is that I am also hunting Orochimaru. I am also an expert of seals, so maybe I can modify that seal"

"Can't you just destroy the seal?" Katara asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe it is removed like that, or it lasts a lifetime." He explained. "It is possible to break it, but it may cost the owner's life."

"It's okay if you simply get rid of Orochimaru's control over me" Jet told. "And if the only way to do that is to kill me, do it"

"Let's not get hasty" Jiraiya said. "First I must see the seal. Release him."

Sokka cut down the ropes. Jet turned his back to Jiraiya and revealed his neck. Jiraya looked at the seal.

"This seal appears to be a modified killing seal" Jiraiya explained. "But instead of killing and harming you it takes the control of your body from you"

"How do you know something like that?" Sokka asked doubtingly.

"Normally a seal like this is put to head in order to harm the brains" Jiraiya answered. "But this one is next to the spinal cord allowing full access to nerves..."

"Which give signals to the muscles to move the limbs, giving the user of the seal full access to carrier's body!" Sokka interrupted looking astonished. "But the knowledge of how the seal works is only the first step. How do we unseal it?"

"Normally a seal like this is activated by making a hand seal" Jiraiya answered. "We just have to find out the hand seal that activates this and use it's opposite to-"

But Jiraiya couldn't finish the sentence, because suddenly Jet attacked him. Jiraiya managed to grab him from the wrists and disarm him. But Jet continued to struggle.

"I'm terribly sorry Jiraya!" Jet apologised. "I can't control my body!"

"Come out, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya shouted in the woods. "I know you are in here, so just come out and reveal yourself!"

A strange, snakelike man appeared from the woods accompanied by a spider-like boy dressed in leaves, a girl with fire armour and flute and a large young man in a dark green cloak and hat with gloves and boots made of stone. The snake-man came forth.

"It must be my lucky day." He said. "Not only did I manage to get the Avatar, but will finally get myself rid of you, Jiraya."

"We'll see who gets rid of who, Orochimaru" Jiraya threatened. "Tell me, are you still working with captain Zhao?"

"Correction, he is commander Zhao now!" Orochimaru corrected. "And soon admiral after twins return from their mission. But enough of talk. Kill them, but don't hurt the Avatar!"

"Tayuya, you capture of the Avatar!" Spider-boy gave orders to the girl. "Me and Jirobo will make sure the other kids won't interrupt you"

"Got it, Kidomaru!" Tayuya replied, making Aang her target.

* * *

Despite outnumbering their enemy, Sokka, Haku and the Freedom Fighters had trouble dealing with Jirobo and Kidomaru, because what they lacked in number, they took back in skill. Jirobo used his knowledge of earthbending to block the attacks, while Kidomaru attacked with his webs, forcing Aang's friends to hide.

"We cannot attack directly" Haku informed. "The spider can make some sort of metal from his skin, making my needles useless and there isn't enough water for me to make ice"

"I can give you some" Katara suggested.

"Thank you, but it won't be enough" Haku explained "I need a large presence of water, rain or mist to use my best techniques and now the sun is shining"

Longshot snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention and pointed right in front of him and then behind him. Smellerbee nodded understanding.

"We are close to the river" She translated. "What we need to do is to get those two there to have a better chance to win."

"And I know excactly how" Katara told to the others, who listened intensely. "I'll fill the ground around the river with water, so it becomes muddy. And when they are trapped, we strike with full force.

Others agreed to the plan and went to the direction of the dam, excluding Haku, Duke and Pipsqueak, who went to distract the ninjas, and Sokka, who went to help Jiraiya. Meanwhile Jirobo and Kidomaru were looking for them.

"I hope they didn't escape." Jirobo worried "If they get to help Avatar, the plan will fail."

"You don't need to worry about that" Kidomaru said. "They are now heading away from him. Besides I think Tayuya can take down a few extra"

"Don't be so sure, Kidomaru. Tayuya may be a great illusionist, but she's not a bender, while the Avatar's bending power equals that of a sacred beast"

"You may be right. Too bad Kimimaro is too sick to help. Better hope nothing goes wro-" But Kidomaru couldn't finish the sentence, because Duke's attack interrupted him. Suddenly Jirobo also got hit Pipsqueak, but soon regained his balance.

"Trying to attack with taijutsu, eh?" Jirobo commented. "It was a stupid thing to do, fat boy. I am good in earthbending but even better in taijutsu"

"You and I are around the same size" Pip-squeak reminded. "Actually you're a little larger, so you have no right to call others fat"

"Are we going to fight or just talk?" Jirobo asked, to which Pip-squeak answered by attacking. Jirobo blocked and smiled evilly.

Meanwhile up in the trees Aang was in trouble with three strange creatures. They looked like humans, but they had bandages all over their bodies and from their mouths came out strange ghosts. Aang had got touched by one of the ghosts and had felt himself getting damaged from inside. Luckily while her couldn't attack the ghosts, the creatures could easily be struck by airbending. At the same time Aang could hear strange music played by a flute.

_"Those creatures seem to be moving according to the music"_ He thought. _"I'm not as smart as Sokka, but even I know what to do. I just have to find that girl playing the flute and take her down"_

Aang listened carefully to the music. He had been told by monk Gyatso that sound was in reality vibrations in the air. He now concentrated to these vibrations. Finally he found out Tayuya's hiding place, going to her direction silently like an owl. Little did he know, that it was exactly what Tayuya wanted. When Aang saw Tayuya, she seemed to be completely concentrated on the music. But when Aang made a sneak attack, Tayuya struck him down and strangled him. Aang tried to airbend, but nothing happened.

"Just as I thought" Tayuya said smiling. "You cannot bend air without air in your lungs. All I need to do is to suffocate you and take your unconscious body to Orochimaru"

Aang tried to struggle, but it was in vain. Soon his vision blackened and he fainted.

Jiraiya was also close to defeat. Orochimaru alone was a powerful opponent, but now he also had Jet aiding him through his seal, so Jiraiya didn't dare to use his best techniques, fearing he might kill Jet in the process. Also if Jiraya tried to disarm Jet, he would leave himself open for Orochimaru to strike. But the worst thing was that the hand seal Orochimaru used to control Jet, was not one of the twelve known ones. Instead he had invented own seal, which he used by his left hand holding the middle and ring finger down with his thumb while keeping index finger and pinkie up, thus having no known opposite seal to use. Also this allowed Orochimaru to use his free right hand to use his sword.

"Jiraiya!" Jet shouted. "As long as Orochimaru controls me, he is victorious! You have to kill me!"

Jiraiya wasn't willing to sacrifice Jet just to get Orochimaru. However he didn't seem to have a choice. But before Jiraiya could do anything, Jet suddenly stopped attacking. Both looked towards Orochimaru, seeing Sokka right in front of him. Sokka had put his right hand with opposite fingers into Orochimaru's hand seal, nullifying it.

"Didn't expect someone to invent the opposite to your seal, did you?" Sokka asked. "Your hand seal was created only to control seals, so it has no elemental value. All I needed to do was to use one to fit your's, just like finding a key to lock."

Orochimaru chuckled. "You are a smart kid, but you made a fatal mistake. I can turn my tongue into a poisonous snake to strike and you are now too close to me to dodge it. Goodbye!"

Orochimaru opened his mouth, where the snake came out. But before it could bite Sokka, he hit Orochimaru to the chin, making him bite the snake, which turned back to tongue. Orochimaru screamed in agony. Jiraiya saw the opportunity, creating a white orb of energy in his hand and running towards Orochimaru. Orochimaru called Jet to cover him. However Jiraiya, though hitting Jet, managed to spin his body to redirect the attack on Orochimaru's side, making him fly into the woods.

Meanwhile Kidomaru and Jirobo kept hunting the freedom fighters. Kidomaru had managed to get Duke out of his head and completely ensnare him in web, while Jirobo had absorbed lots of Pipsqueak's chakra, making him weak. Haku holding Momo in his arms talked to his pet.

"We must help our friends." He told. "I know you are scared, but we can't let them die. Do you still remember what we are going to do?" Momo nodded. "Good, lets go!"

Momo jumped from Haku's lap, while Haku made some hand seals. Soon there was another Haku standing in place of Momo. Both of them jumped out of sight. Suddenly they appeared again, one attacking Kidomaru and the other Jirobo. They both threw a needle at their targets and disappeared. Both dodged the needles.

"Did you see that, Kidomaru?" Jirobo asked.

"Just barely" Kidomaru answered. "We must be careful against him. I saw him earlier defeating all of the freedom fighters we sent only by those needles. He must possess great knowledge of anatomy, most likely to attack organs, chi and chakra. We must take him down quickly."

Both boys searched the woods for Haku. Soon Jirobo saw Haku's jacket behind a tree and informed it to Kidomaru through body language. Both moved silently towards Haku and attacked, discovering only the jacket. Also they were now deep in mud, which made their moving difficult and surrounded by mirrors made of ice.

"Now you are on my territory" Haku entering one of the mirrors and appearing on all of them. "I'll show you my true power"

Freedom fighters attacked. Jirobo and Kidomaru were great ninjas, but now the odds had turned against them. Mud slowed their movements and the needles Haku threw damaged their chakra. Realising they couldn't win, they decided to escape.

Kidomaru laughed "You may think you have won, but you haven't! We have the Avatar and he brings back several times the losses" After speech they both disappeared. Smellerbee and Sneers tried to follow them, but Longshot stopped them.

Aang however wasn't captured so easily as Tayuya thought. Suddenly his eyes and arrow started glowing and a large gust threw Tayuya backwards. She got back up and called her creatures to attack again, but they were all pushed back by the winds.

"You may have defeated my spirit servants, but you won't defeat my illusions." Tayuya changed the melody. Soon Aang saw himself chained, while his body just melted, causing him pain. In agony, Aang created a gigantic tornado, which hit Tayuya again, making her drop her flute. The illusion, which needed the melody to exist, disappeared. Seeing herself being no match to the Avatar state, Tayuya escaped, leaving Aang to recover.

* * *

Later all the good guys were recovering. Though they had won, many got hurt. Duke had almost choked under the web and the chakra absorb had left Pipsqueak weak. But Jet was in worst condition. Jiraiya's attack had left a deep round wound around his stomach. Sokka, though almost unharmed, was furious.

"I can't believe they all escaped!" He said furiously. "We should have destroyed them!"

"You should be grateful they retreated" Jiraiya answered to Sokka's tantrum. "Most of their victims don't live to tell the tale. We are lucky we met only the weakest of the sound elite and Orochimaru didn't bother to use his full powers."

Sokka calmed down, understanding Jiraiya's words. Meanwhile Haku and Katara took care of the injured.

"Luckily these damages are not deadly" Haku told to the others. "Jet will also survive. However some weeks to this wound to heal."

Jiraiya looked into the woods. "Tsunade told me once that in this forest there are lots of medicinal herbs. The might hasten the process"

"That's great, Jiraiya!" Katara enlightened from the news. "So where are these plants?"

"To tell the truth I have no idea" He answered looking embarrassed. "Tsunade never told any details. I don't even know what they look like. And even if I did, I don't have time to collect them. I have to kill Orochimaru and finish my books."

Suddenly Haku stood up. "Actually I know several medicinal herbs" He told. "I can stay here and collect them"

"Haku, wait!" Katara interrupted moving next to Haku. "You can't leave us just like that. We still need you!"

"When Zabuza sent me to aid you, you were all weak and inexperienced. But today, when you helped to defeat several deadly ninjas, you prowed yourselves capable of travelling on your own. I know you two can protect Aang as well as I could" Haku smiled with a gentle smile. Katara thought for a while and realised Haku was telling the truth.

"I guess the dream was true." She said shedding a tear. "I'm gonna miss you."

"And so will I" Haku took two scrolls underneath his clothes. "One of these contains several icebending techniques, that is for you and Aang. And the other has several jutsus, that is for Sokka and Momo. Speaking of which Momo will come with you, if that's okay to you that is."

"Absolutely!" Aang shouted happily. Haku chuckled.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Avatar's gang took off with one traveller less. Jiraiya disappeared into the woods and Freedom Fighters with one new member returned to their camp. When gang had travelled a while, Sokka took a piece of paper from underneath his shirt.

"What's that, Sokka?" Katara asked looking at the paper.

"Just something Jiraiya dropped." Sokka answered. "Maybe this will tell me how to create that orb." Katara turned to look at the sky, while Sokka looked at the paper. However, when Sokka found out what excactly was written what was written in the paper, he put it back quickly, blushing like a tomato.


	9. The Spirit Squad part 1

_Here we are again with another chapter. As you may have seen my latest chapter was much longer than normal. In order to get chapters faster, I will submit the normal amount of text. Most of the chapters will be thus one episode per two chapters. Anyway, let's get to business, so enjoy, rewiew, post, list and so on. _

* * *

In an island controlled by Fire Nation a group of ninjas were honing their skills. But instead of kunai or other regular ninja weapons, they used bows with incredible skill and accuracy. They were the Yu Yan archers, the elite ninjas of the Fire Nation, whose archery skills far surpassed those of a normal warrior. Two men were standing in a guard tower looking the Yu Yan's practice. The first was Kakashi Hatake, a powerful jonin, who had earned the title of Copy Ninja for his ability to use any jutsu he saw. He was dressed in a typical leaf ninja's uniform, consisting of black overalls and a red vest with Fire Nation's symbol. His face was hidden behind a scarf and his left eye by a headband with a spiralled leaf on a metal plate, a symbol of the leaf school. The second person was commander Zhao in his typical attire. They were chatting during the watching.

"I'm glad to see that the troops are still in good shape." Kakashi said.

"You are right, captain Hatake" Zhao spoke. "That's why it is a shame colonel Shinu uses them only as his personal bodyguards."

"It is quite understandable. Even the Fire Nation is not safe from the harm this war brings to the world. He just wants to be safe."

"By hiding behind the best ninjas of the Fire Nation, who should be performing missions."

"It is up to me, how the Yu Yan archers are used" Came a voice from the stairs. It was colonel Shinu. "If your request is to borrow them, forget it."

Zhao chuckled. "Actually it is an order, not request." He said taking out a paper. "I was promoted to the rank of admiral recently. So I hope they are soon ready to leave."

Shinu looked at the paper, sighed and headed back down. Kakashi looked at Zhao.

"So why did you call me here." He asked. "I doubt you wanted to see me only to celebrate your promotion."

"Correct, Kakashi" Zhao answered. "I would like you to lead the Yu Yans on their mission to capture the Avatar. That is if your students can survive without you a day or two."

Kakashi thought. "Sasuke can take care of himself and Sakura obeys him as much as she obeys me. Sai... well, at least he won't let his emotions bother him. I'll do it."

"Good" Zhao answered going down. "Oh! And get yourself ready quickly, the team leaves tomorrow"

* * *

However there was a fourth one on top of the tower, listening to the others' chat. He wore a brown suit and a blue demon mask. After the conversation the man carefully walked down the wall and landed to the shore, making sure no one saw him. He sneaked to a bush, pulling a small boat from it and silently rowed away. Soon he was on the shore of a forest where his companions had put a camp. A young woman appeared in front of him, it was Kurenai.

"Was the mission a success" She asked. The man removed his mask, revealing the face of Zuko.

"I found out everything necessary" He said. "Zhao has been promoted to admiral and has taken the command of the Yu Yan archers. They leave tomorrow to search Avatar with captain Hatake leading them."

Kurenai's eyes filled with shock. "Kakashi?" She gasped.

"What's wrong?" Zuko asked seeing Kurenai's shock.

Kurenai calmed down. "It's nothing to be afraid of. I just got a little surprised. Anyway the training is over. You may go to sleep." Zuko bowed and left Kurenai alone. Kurenai turned her eyes on the moon, thinking about her past. _Kakashi. If I had known I would one day fight against you, I'd never had allowed Five Flames to dispand._

But Zuko didn't go to sleep right away. He had too many thoughts in his head. _What is wrong with me? I used to be so determined to capture Avatar, but now I feel I'm doing something wrong. But if I decide to help Avatar, I will never see Fire Nation again. Still, what kind of nation am I actually serving?_

"Can't sleep either?" Came a voice next to Zuko. It was Naruto, also sitting next to a tree. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, a little." Zuko admitted. "There are so many choices to do and I'm not sure what is the right thing. Everything is so strange."

"You think that's strange? Wait until you hear what happened to me few days ago"

Zuko wasn't exactly in the mood for a story, but maybe a little cheer up wouldn't be so bad. "Go on."

"Thanks! Anyway, when I was walking in the forest looking for wood, there was a stranger collecting herbs. She said they were for her friends, who were injured. I decided to help her, after which she thanked me and left giving me some advises"

"What strange was in that? You just met a random girl in the forest and talked. That sounds pretty normal to me"

"Well there were two strange things in her. One: She looked like I had seen her many times. And two: when she left she said: 'By the way, I'm a boy.'"

Zuko tried to hold his laugh. "What? Was he really a boy?"

"Yeah! And he was even prettier than Sakura!"

"Then he must have been really weird" Zuko yawned, he started to feel tired. "By the way, who is Sakura."

"She was a girl from the same academy I went..." Naruto started, but stopped after seeing Zuko asleep. He smiled, stood up and went to give a blanket to his cousin, who was sleeping peacefully for the first time in a month.

* * *

In the morning Yu Yans led by Kakashi left to find the Avatar. Their target were old ruins in the mountains, where the latest report came from. after their arrival to the ruins, Kakashi gave orders to all.

"Everybody move to different directions to seek the Avatar. Return here in five minutes. However, if you see the kid, stay on guard and fire an arrow here with a message of your direction. We all come to aid after rest have returned. I'll stay here and wait for messages. Move!"

Archers left to different directions, while Kakashi took a book from his pocket. Soon an arrow flew trough the air, which Kakashi grabbed. Taking the book away, he looked at the message. Apparently Avatar was collecting frozen frogs in the swamp for reasons unknown. Kakashi hoped others would return before the boy got finished. Luckily Yu Yans never wasted time and soon the team was whole again.

"Okay, men. Avatar is in the west." Kakashi informed. "He collects frozen frogs in the swamp. We must hurry before he finishes. Let's go.

Kakashi left to the informed direction with archers behind him. Soon they met the archer, who gave the message. Luckily the boy was still searching for frogs. Kakashi gave everyone a signal to attack. When archers attacked, Kakashi stayed behind and revealed his left eye. But this eye was not a normal eye, it was red and the pupil was surrounded by three markings. It was sharingan, a mysterious eye possessed by the Uchihas, which allowed them to copy techniques used by the enemies, as long as they were not bloodlines or bending. Kakashi normally kept it hidden, but now he wanted to see if the Avatar's airbending movements could be compromised to his firebending.

* * *

Aang tried to defend himself from the attackers. He could easily deflect the arrows by using the wind to create a shield around himself. However he couldn't stay and fight, because the frogs may melt during the battle, after which they would be useless to Sokka and Katara, who needed them as medicine. So Aang's only option was to escape. He decided to lose his captors in a forest, where he thought they couldn't use bows effectively. Little did he know, that a mysterious man was waiting in him. Aang took his fighting stance, and the man mimicked him. Aang looked in amazement, when the man copied his every movement. Even with his bigger size he was just as fast and agile as Aang was.

_This is bad._ Aang thought. _He can mimic my every movement, so I have no chance of getting behind him. On the other hand, if he can only mimic me, he's limited by his nationality and I still have my Airbending._

Aang jumped several meters backwards and the stranger did the same. Confident that the man couldn't copy him, he created a sphere of air and jumped on it. When he came rushing towards, the man mimicked Aang's earlier movements, making a sphere in his hands, but this was made of fire instead of air. Confused Aang didn't have time to react, when the stranger kicked the sphere, hitting him on the chest. Aang tried to rise up, but was pinned down by arrows. The stranger came next to Aang.

"I suppose you thought I would be unable to copy your airbending" He said. "Unfortunately to you fire and air are closely related, both use swift elegant movements and require air. I tell you this because it will be of no use to you. Take him away."

* * *

However Aang's capture wasn't unnoticed. Zuko, masqueraded as the Blue Spirit, saw everything. Silently he returned to the camp, where the others were also masquerading. Hinata had put on a light armour of polished steel and dyed her hair crimson, which she was now making spiky. Kiba on the other hand was wearing a white training suit, which he had stuffed two apples around the chest to imitate breasts. He was now strapping exploding tags underneath his tan hooded cloak to use on their mission. Shino, however was nowhere to be seen.

"Hi Zuko" Kiba greeted with his informal manner. "Did you see the kid?"

"Yes. And they have captured him." Zuko answered, though he wasn't worried.

"So far, so good." Kiba continued. "If the plan goes accordingly, they will soon arrive to the closest Fire Nation's fortress to spend the night. And in the morning the Avatar is transported to Fire Nation in a large escort. Since it would be impossible to us to defeat a battalion of warriors, we must infiltrate the fortress to 'rescue' the kid before sunrise. Is this okay?"

Zuko chuckled. "Ever since I invented it. But in order to this plan to succeed, we need to hide our identities completely"

"That is why I made this jutsu" Came a soft, gentle voice behind them. A young man dressed entirely in black with several feather decorations and a hawk mask in his face appeared in front of them.

"Is it you, Shino." Hinata asked nervously. The boy nodded. "You shouldn't scare me up like that. I may have mistaken you for an enemy." She suddenly stopped when she saw Zuko and Kiba looking at her confused. "What are you looking at?"

"If you hadn't discovered yet you didn't stutter." Shino answered.

"You are right" Hinata said amazed. Normally she was too shy to speak clearly, but now there wasn't even fear in her voice. "I guess I don't feel afraid when being with you."

"We have all grown during our travel" Zuko commented to the discovery. "Time away from the Fire Nation's protection has given us talents we would had no chance to learn at home."

"Is that why we need to wear these disguises?" Kiba asked putting his cloak on, to which Zuko nodded.

"Now when we have a chance to use skills unknown to the Fire Nation, we can rescue the Avatar without getting our faces to posters"

"Now that you mentioned" Shino interrupted. "I would need your mask for a moment." Zuko gave his mask to Shino, who put it on the ground and made five handsigns. "Voice twist jutsu!" The mask's mouth glowed a while, after which it returned to normal. "This mask will now make your voice sound different. I already fixed mine, Hinata's and Kiba's masks"

Kiba took a white tiger mask and put it on. "Hey, this thing works." He said after hearing his voice having turned to that of a teen girl.

"Luckily I don't stutter anymore" Hinata, who wore a steel mask painted red, commented. "Despite I now look and sound like a young boy, it would give me away."

"We just now need to focus on the mission and prevent us from being revealed" Zuko informed putting his mask on, which turned his voice to that of a middle-aged man "When the sun sets down, and humans will go to sleep, Spirit Squad shall come."


	10. The Spirit Squad part 2

Aang stood chained to the wall in Fire Nation's prison. Several feelings filled his mind. He was worried for his friends, who were weakening from a sickness they catched. He was scared about his fate, when he will be brought in front of the Fire Lord. But most of all, Aang was angry, angry for himself for being cause to all this. He was the Avatar, the last hope of the world. He should have had no problem in defeating the ninjas sent to capture him, yet here he was, unable to do anything.

"Hope you are happy for what you have done, Aang." He scolded himself. "You betrayed Katara, Sokka, Hacua, Roku, Zalina, everyone! And because of it you will rot in prison for the rest of your life, while the Fire Nation takes over the world and no one will help you."

* * *

But that's where Aang was wrong, because the help was already coming. Four masked ninjas had arrived close to the fortress and were now planning the rescue operation.

"Okay everyone" The blue masked ninja started. "We have changed our voices, but we also need codenames. We will call ourselves after the colours of our masks. I am Blue. Hinata will be Red, Kiba is called White and Shino is Black. Are there any questions?"

White stepped forward. "Are you sure about this plan, Zuk... Blue?"

"Nope" Blue answered. "But it is the only choice we have. If there aren't any other questions, let us repeat the plan. Black and I will climb into that tower and give you cover."

"Meanwhile me and Red walk into the cells, find the Avatar and release him." White continued. "After that we climb with him to the tower and together we fly away. That is unless something goes wrong."

"As long as you are on my range of sight, I can use genjutsu to make them see you as Fire National officers, so you should be able to just walk inside." Blue told. "However, once you are inside the building, you are on your own."

"But wait a minute." Red interrupted. "What if they ask papers from us?"

"Just borrow an exploding tag from White." Blue answered. "They will only see, what they expect to see."

Red nodded and left the bush with White following him. Blue and Black also left and sneaked to the fortress. They chose a tower close to the gate, where Blue would have the best chance to see White and Red. Blue and Black put some chakra to their hands and feet and climbed up to the tower. There were a few guards in the tower, but they were no match to the ninjas. After the guards had been rendered unconscious, Blue took a look at White and Red.

"Time to get to the job. Get ready to give the signal." Blue told to Black. Then he made six handsings. "Genjutsu: Foe to Friend!"

Black activated his backpack, revealing two large, mechanic wings. He grabbed the other one and swung it, so that Red and White could see it. It was the signal.

Red saw the signal. "Okay, White, let's go. I'll be the captain and you are my secretary."

"Why can't you be my secretary while I'm the captain." White asked.

"Try to remember which one of us is a man and which one a woman" Red answered. "Now stop whining and let's go."

White humped at Red's comment while rising up. Deciding not to let it bother she followed Red.

In front of the gate the guard stopped them. "Who are you and what is your business?" He asked.

"I am captain Akaro from the royal guard and this is lieutenant Shiroko, my secretary." Red introduced. "We were sent here by Fire Lord to see if the rumours of Avatar's capture were true. So if possible we would like to see him."

"In that case I would like to see the papers." Guard said stretching his hand forwards. White took an exploding tag and gave it to the guard. He looked closely the paper and gave it back.

"I apologise for the slow down, sir. Open the gate!" The gate opened and Red and White walked in. Everyone who saw them simply greeted them like they were officers, meaning that so far genjutsu worked. Luckily they managed to get inside without trouble. They walked to the direction, where the guards had told Avatar was being held. The door to Avatar's cell was guarded by six firebenders. White took a kunai from her cape and tied a tag to it. She threw it right in the middle of the guards. But this one wasn't loaded with explosives. It was filled with sleeping gas. In a few seconds all of the guards were fast asleep and White and Red could simply walk to the door. The next problem was to open the locked door. White begun to search for a key, but Red stopped her.

"It will take too much time" Red said. "Besides I have another plan."

"Are you going to use Cutting Fist?" White asked, to which Red nodded. "But that door is made of steel."

"Then it is time to see if I can cut steel" Red answered. He put his right hand in a knife position. The fingertips gloved blue when Red made a vertical chop and kicked the doors, which flew open.

Aang was awakened from his thoughts by a sudden thump. Looking forward he saw the doors flung open with guards on the floor and two masked persons in front of him. The other one wore an armour of polished steel and a red metal mask with expressionless face carved on it. He looked like a 10-year-old boy because he was very short, even shorter than Aang. The other was a girl in her teens in a white jump-suit with matching tiger mask. Her tan cloak was full of tags and the belt of kunais and shurikens.

"Okay, so you can cut metal." The tiger girl said to the boy. "Why don't you release the Avatar?"

The boy moved towards Aang with ballet-like movements and sliced the chains with his hands.

"Thanks guys" Aang thanked his rescuers. "But who are you and why do you help me?"

The boy looked at Aang. "We don't have names. You can call me Red and her White. There are also Blue and Black waiting us out there. If you want to adress us all at once, we are the Spirit Squad. We help you, because there are people who need you. Now listen carefully. When we get out to the courtyard, don't speak or otherwise say anything. We have put all the guards in there in a genjutsu, so they see us now as Fire National officers. We have only come here to check if you exist, so we are supposed to leave without you. That is why when we leave, you'll have to be quiet. Don't say anything and move silently. We'll convince the guards you are not with us. Are there any questions?"

Aang thought for a moment and shook his head. White took off her cloak and put it on Aang. "Now don't remove this." She told, to which Aang nodded. Though their plan sounded weird to him, he saw the confidence in those two, they knew what they did. Aang put the hood over his head and followed the two. Outside they told that there was nothing of colour tan, so no one in genjutsu would see Aang, who was under a tan cloak.

* * *

Unfortunately one guard accidentally stomped on Avatar's cloak. Suddenly in front of him was the Avatar out of nothing. Surprised he bit his hand hard, the two officers disappeared and were replaced by two juvenile ninjas in masks.

"Genjutsu." The guard realised. "Everyone, we are under genjutsu! They are taking the Avatar away!"

Hearing the man's cries, everyone started releasing themselves. Ninjas used jutsu releaser, warriors hurt themselves in different methods. Soon everyone could see the trio and charged towards them with their weapons.

"This doesn't look good." Black commented watching down. "What do we do now, Blue?"

"Now we get down and fight." Blue answered grabbing his broadswords. "Arm yourself!"

Black did as he was told and pulled out two gloves with long claws. "You know, I cannot actually fly with my wings, just glide. If we now go down, we stay there."

"Then we'll climb out. Let's move!"

Blue ran down the wall while Black glided towards his companions, who were all busy protecting Avatar. Red engaged the enemy at close quarters, using his hands to cut their weapons and armour. He wanted to just disarm them if possible, but was ready to cut his enemies to pieces. White on the other hand didn't care about the damage she caused. She jumped and bounced around the courtyard planting exploding tags everywhere and blowing them when she was in a safe distance. Blue came close to Red to help him. Though he did specialise in genjutsu he was also great with twin broadswords, taking down opponents left and right. Black glided over the battlefield, attacking enemies from above, either with his gloves or wings. When he reached the ground he used chakra to jump up for another charge. Aang fought also, using his airbending to block attacks and blowing soldiers and ninjas away.

Zhao was getting furious. "Stand your ground, the avatar must not escape!" He commanded. "Those idiots can't even defeat four ninjas and an airbender kid. Do I have to do everything myself."

But before he moved to fight, Kakashi stopped him. "Just leave these five to me. Tell the guards to stand back."

Zhao ordered his men to stand aside and form a ring around the five. Aang looked around, it seemed to be a ring of challenge. He froze when he saw, who the challenger was: It was the same masked man, who had captured him single-handedly in the forest.

"I challenge you five to an Agni Kai" Kakashi spoke. "As an equaliser you, as well as I, are allowed to use everything we got to defeat the opponent. If I win, you will all surrender. You win, and I let you leave with the Avatar. But if you try to escape, you will die."

"Why does captain Kakashi give them a chance to escape?" One of the soldiers wondered.

"He doesn't" Another soldier told. "I have worked with Kakashi before. He never loses."

The Spirit squad and Aang surrounded Kakashi, each one ready to charge. Kakashi chuckled and took out the Sharingan. Black made the first move. He jumped up attacking Kakashi from above, trying to pierce him with his talons. Kakashi however dodged easily and was soon next to Black, ready to launch a fireball. But before he could fire, Red kicked him in the neck, making him lose concentration. Kakashi grabbed Red's ankle and threw him on the ground. White threw several kunais with explosive tags at Kakashi, while Aang told everyone to come near him. When White activated the tags, Aang created a shield of air to protect from the explosion. However they exploded high in the sky, where Kakashi had redirected the kunais. Black started to run and came towards Kakashi. Blue came with his swords from the other side, planning to sandwich him with their blades. But when they hit the ninja, he was replaced by a statue.

"A replacement jutsu!" Blue noticed. "Everyone stay on guard, he can be anywhere!"

Everyone looked across the courtyard. Blue, who had seen that statue earlier, looked towards the pedestal it originally was, but it was empty. Then it hit him. He stayed put for a while and ran behind Aang, putting his swords in the air. Kakashi appeared in front of Blue with the swords on his throat. Aang fell to the ground tied in ropes.

"That was a clever trick." Blue commented. "With that genjutsu you could have tied us all up while we futilely searched for you. However you forgot that this was an open battlefield and not a forest. So, are you going to give up or would you like to lose height."

Kakashi sighed, "I forfeit. You are free to go. I will not stop you."

Soldiers looked in shock at Kakashi's loss, but Zhao just grinned. The Spirit Squad and Aang walked through the opened gate. Kakashi walked towards Zhao head down looking ashamed, but underneath his mask he smiled.

"I apologise, admiral" He said sounding embarrassed. "I failed."

"It was indeed a great disappointment. But it doesn't matter." Zhao said, which shocked Kakashi. "Now, when those five are in a false sense of security, I can take care of them at once. After all you didn't say anything about me trying to stop them."

Aang looked nervously at the fortress. They had got out, but something told Aang that fire nationals could not be trusted. His suspicion was soon proven correct, when four arrows flew towards the ninjas. Quickly he blew the arrows away.

"What happened?" Blue asked pulling his swords.

"They fired arrows at you." Aang answered. "we must hurry, before..." But he didn't finish, because another, blunt arrow hit him on the head. His vision blurred as he fainted.

* * *

When Aang woke up, it was morning. His head still hurt, but he wasn't in chains, so his rescuers must have escaped with him. He got surprised when he heard the voices of Zuko, Hinata, Kiba and Shino instead of those of his rescuers. He looked carefully around and saw those four sitting near the same swamp he had collected frogs yesterday. Zuko, who was wearing the same outfit Blue spirit wore, turned his head towards Aang.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked politely. "You were lucky they wanted you alive. That arrow would have killed you if it had been sharp"

"But there is one thing I don't understand." Aang spoke changing subject. "If you are the ones, who rescued me, why. If I don't remember incorrectly, you want to capture me as much as any fire national. Why didn't you let them do the job?"

Zuko sighed. "It's for the same reason I have this scar. You see I may be the prince and heir of the Fire Nation, but now I'm only an exile."

Aang got surprised. "Do you mean that... If you captured me... You could go home?"

"You're a smart kid. And yes, that's the reason I try to capture you." Zuko admitted. "You see, about two years ago I was listening to the generals planning their strategies. Then I heard one of them planning to use a squad of rookies as a meat shield against the enemy. I got shocked and protested. Father told me I was disrespectful and the only way to solve it was agni kai, a duel of firebenders. I was more than ready to face that general. But the one I was disrespectful to was not that general, who I insulted, but my father, in whose warroom I made the insult. When I saw him in the arena, I begged him to forgive me. He demanded me to fight, but I didn't. He punished me by burning this scar to my face and banishing me from my home. He said to me that I would come back with the Avatar, or don't come back at all."

"No wonder you are hunting me." Aang spoke. "Nobody should lose his home. In that way we two are the same."

"However, since you saved our lives, I will give you a chance to go." Zuko said taking out his right hand. "We will play element in hand. There will be only one try. If you win, you can leave and take those frogs you seem to need for some reason." He said pointing at a small net full of frosen frogs. "But if I win, you come with us."

Aang agreed and sat next to Zuko. Both hid their right hand and Aang showed his left one. He counted to three with his fingers. After three, they both showed their element at the same time. Zuko had put his hand in a position similar to a wave, representing water, while Aang showed an open palm, representing air. Aang had won. All five were silent when Aang rose and took the frogs with him. But before leaving he suddenly stopped.

"You know, before the war started I had a friend in the Fire Nation. His name was Kuzon. We two would get into so much trouble together. He was one my best friends. If we would have known each other back then, do you think we could have been friends?"

But Zuko said nothing. The four just looked when the avatar disappeared into the forest.

* * *

Meanwhile Naruto ran a path towards an abandoned temple. But it wasn't Naruto, who was in control, but Hacua. The blue eyes were now red and pupils had turned into slits. There were fangs in his mouth and red chakra surrounded his body.

**"Wait just a little longer, Aang" **He spoke to himself. **"I will repay for what I did by being your protector."**

Arriving at the temple, where he had felt the scent his old friend. He saw Aang feeding frogs to the water siblings. Aang turned to look.

"Hacua?" He asked looking at Naruto. Though the body was Naruto's, he remembered the eyes of the fox.

**"I don't have time to explain" **The beast said. **"Tie me up before the kit takes over again. Later I will tell everything." **


	11. Ties that bind part 1

_Author's note: At last, after a long break I have a new chapter. I'm not sure, how it has felt, but nonetheless, enjoy the new chapter_

Naruto lied down sulking. That was pretty much his normal mood since he "joined" the Avatar on his travels. Technically it was Hacua, who had joined the Avatar, but since he was sealed inside Naruto, they shared his body. He was now on Appa's back with the rest of Aang's companions, wearing one of Katara's spare clothes and having a rope tied around his neck, Sokka holding the other end.

"I have no idea, which is worse" Naruto complained. "That I'm a prisoner of my enemies or that I'm wearing girl's clothes."

"I would say it's the first one." Sokka answered. "After all there are three good reasons for those clothes. Firstly if you walked around in that fire armor of yours, you would get killed. Secondly, I am much bigger than you, so my clothes are out of question. And thirdly, Aang has no spare clothes at all."

"Oh well, I wouldn't have used one hundred years old clothes anyway." Naruto continued. "But do I really have to walk with this rope around my neck. I'm not a dog!"

"No." Sokka admitted. "But you are a fox. A really big fox with really destructive airbending powers."

"The only fox here is Hacua and the airbending also belongs to him." Naruto corrected. "I just can't believe I've all this time lending the powers of a lunatic."

**"Watch your mouth, Kit!" **Hacua interrupted taking over Naruto. **"If it wasn't for me, the fortune teller's village would now be under magma!"**

"Oh, and I thought Aang saved them." Naruto said sarcastically.

"Well, I got some help from him." Aang admitted smiling. "It feels so good to have another familiar one with me!"

**"Speaking of familiars, is that a water tribe boat?"**

Sokka dashed next to Naruto and looked down. Right underneath there was a boat stranded on the beach. Though the flags and sails were missing, Sokka could still recognise the design. It was water boat.

"Aang! Land us to the beach!" Sokka shouted. "There may be water tribal's here!"

* * *

At the same time Zuko's troops were searching for Naruto. This was because he was now travelling with the Avatar. When Zuko, Hinata, Kiba and Shino returned to the camp Naruto was nowhere. And when they were tracking him, they had seen the sky bison leaving not only with Avatar and his companions, but with tied up Naruto. After that they started to track both of them. Kiba and Akamaru were trying to find the scent of Naruto, unsuccessfully.

"Well can't you try harder" Zuko asked getting angry.

"The avatar spends too much time airborne." Kiba answered. "Neither I or Akamaru can find scent from the air. Only a shirshu could smell them."

"Shirshu?" Zuko asked. "What's that?"

"A mole-hound hybrid." Kurenai answered. "They lack eyes, but their noses are highly developed. According to rumours they are said to be able to smell a grain of rice from the other side of the Earth Kingdom. I'm not sure if it's true, but some bounty hunters use them to capture criminals.

"I see." Zuko continued. "And how are we supposed to find a bounty hunter in a middle of nowhere?"

Before Kurenai had a chance to answer, Shino spoke. "I can send my kikaichus to seek one. Bounty hunters often hang in bars, so if one of them owns a shirshu, it should be outside the bar. Just tell me what they look like and I'll tell my bugs to seek it."

"Let's see." Kurenai thought trying to remember how a Shirshu looked like. "Oh, yes. Shirshu looks more like hound than a mole. Its ears are small and the nose looks a little like a star. It's a little smaller than a sky bison and has a brown fur, which is darker on the back and head"

Shino nodded and released thousands of insects underneath his armour and sent them everywhere. "Now we'll just have to wait."

* * *

Aang sat on top of the water ship, looking at the sea. He was feeling very lonely. When they had landed, a water tribe warrior was also there. His name was Bato. He was a friend of Sokka's and Katara's father. At first Aang was exited to meet him, but then all three started to ignore him. They were probably still talking with each other, not even noticing that Aang had left. Hacua was also on the beach, walking towards Aang.

**"I can see you are feeling bad about something"** He said. **"Would you like to talk about it?"**

"There is absolutely nothing wrong" Aang answered rudely. "Just go away"

"Listen, Hacua. Let me handle this. " Came Naruto's voice. Hacua went back to dormant state, while Naruto continued. "Hacua may not know, why you are sulking, but I do: You crave attention"

"Why do you think that?"

"I used to have that same problem in the past as well."

_Naruto's story_

_"You see, when I lived in the fire palace, I felt lonely here and then. Servants would just do their jobs and leave, not even saying anything when in my presence. Uncle Ozai always looked at me with some kind of anger in his eyes. After that I used to pull pranks everywhere in the palace, but still only the guards would notice me. One day, despite dad forbidding it, I left the palace. When I walked in the capital, I was assaulted. Civilians, beat me and threw rocks at me, calling me names like demon and monster and so on. Last thing I remember was Lu Ten splitting the crowd and taking me into his arms. Later when I was in the hospital, dad told me that the reasons they attacked was because there are people who hate the Fire Lord, but due to his firebending, don't have the courage to attack him, so they try to satisfy their rage by attacking those close to him."_

_End of Naruto's story_

"At first I was sure he told the truth, after all I'm not even a firebender, so I was an easy target. But now I know the truth. They all believe I'm not a Fire National human, who just wants to be seen, but an Air Nomad demon, who killed countless innocent people."

Aang went silent. He thought about Naruto's theory and realised that he was right. He did want people to pay attention to him, he wanted to be noticed. Ever since he had met Katara and Sokka, he was constantly trying to impress them or someone else.

Aang sighed. "You know, Naruto. For such a dumb kid, you are smart."

Naruto chuckled. Then he heard something moving on the beach. He looked at the direction of the voice and saw an earth warrior coming towards them riding an ostrich horse.

"Hey, you kids on the boat." he said. "Can I ask for a favor?"

Aang jumped in front of the man. "Sure. What can I do for you?"

The warrior took a scroll under his armor and gave it to Aang. "There is a water warrior in a monastery. Give this to him."

Aang nodded. The warrior jumped on his steed and left. Aang looked at the paper and crumled it to a ball. Naruto quickly grapped Aang's hand and took the paper from him.

"What do you think you are doing, Aang?" He asked.

"Preventing my friends from leaving me permanently." Aang answered. "It's a map Bato has been waiting for. If Katara and Sokka find out about this, they will surely leave me to find their father."

Naruto opened the map, looked at it and chuckled. "Oh, Aang, Aang, Aang." He said. "If you hide this, they will even more likely leave you let's say, if you accidentally drop it."

"Then what should I do? Give it to them?"

"Exactly"

"Are you crazy, Naruto? Don't you remember what I just said? If I did that, they would leave me even quicker!"

"Two words for you, Aang: Reverse Psychology. People often make the opposite of what they should do: they eat the desert first because it was meant to be eaten after the meal, walk through the door because it says "do not enter", you name it. If you want to keep your friends, give the map to them."

Aang thought for a moment. _"He is right. If they find out I was going to stop them from leaving, they will leave me out of anger. So perhaps if I act like I wanted to give them the map, they will definitely ask to continue with me. Wait a minute, that's not possible, it's too illogical. On the other hand it is worth trying and I don't really have another option."_

Aang turned towards Naruto. "What do I need to do?"

* * *

At the same time outside a tavern Zuko's group had found a bounty hunter, who had a shirshu. Her name was June.

"So, let me get this straight." She said after hearing Zuko's suggestion for helping them. "You want Nyla to sniff out a member of your group, who is currently a kidnapped by the Avatar, who is your actual target, right?"

"Yes. Um, are there any problems?" Zuko asked, hoping that June wouldn't drop the mission for moral reasons. His fear was found wrong, whe he heard June's answer.

"Nope, just checking. By the way, Nyla can only carry a maximum of four adults, me included, so the kids have to stay here."

"There is no need to" Shino interrupted. "As ninjas we are trained to move quickly on foot."

"In that case I'll run as well." Kurenai said. "Ne need as much speed we can get. Remove all heavy objects, so we can move better. I believe the Shirshu can carry them."

"Count me in on the running team." Zuko said removing his armor. "I need some practice and the Shirshu is already carrying a heavy load."

"I heard that" Iroh commented.

"Okay, enough with the small talk." June interrupted. "We should get going before the Avatar saves the world."

June gave the signal with her whip and Nyla started running to the direction of the scent with the runners following by jumping from tree to tree.


	12. Ties that bind part 2

Author's note: I'm not exactly sure how long has it been since I last uploaded anything, but now it is time to yet again update, so enjoy

* * *

A small boat was zig zaggin through the rocks, careful not to hit them. But this boat was not in actual trouble. The ones sailing were Sokka, Katara, Aang and Naruto, with Bato sitting in the boat watching the performance. The reason they were on these waters was Sokka's rite of manhood, a test, where he had to navigate the ship to safety. So far the test had gone without problems, but now in fron of the ship was a wide wall of rocks, not possible for a ship to navigate under current conditions.

"Okay, Sokka. I think we can return now." Bato said. "Those rocks cannot be dodged"

"We'll see sbout that." Sokka answered with a confident look. "Okay team, we need to get this boat above the rocks! Katara, Aang, concentrate the water underneath the boat! Naruto, blow wind to the sails upwards!"

Everyone did like they were told and managed to get the boat over the rock, to the great relief of Bato.

Later on the beach, Bato congratulated the team for the good work.

"Now," He said. "I shall give you all a mark on your foreheads for your success. Sokka, you showed great leadership skills today, so you have earned the Mark of the Wise. Katara, you showed incredible courage in front of dangers, so the Mark of the Brave is yours to carry. Aang and Naruto. the mark I'm going to give you two exceptionally special. First of all it is given to the outsiders, who have earned the respect of the Southern Water Tribe. But today it had another purpose. Normally the one, who takes the test is allowed to have only two friends with him. However Sokka insisted on taking you both, meaning he trusts both of you greatly. So you will both have the Mark of the trusted, you truly have earned them"

After the ceremony was over, Naruto talked to Sokka.

"Umm, Sokka." He asked. "I'm still a fire national, right? One, who has caused you great trouble in the past. Yet you asked me to be allowed to accompany you on your test. Why did you do that for?"

Sokka chuckled. "Yes. I may have sounded ridiculous, when I did that. But the truth is that you are more than just a fire national. Despite being our prisoner, you have helped us whenever we needed help. Regular fire nationals are not so selfless. Besides, that test was least i could do after what you did to Aang."

"Wai-wait a second!" Naruto said surprised. "You knew I suggested lying?"

"Come on. I have seen Aang smiling a lot. I know when it is not sincere."

Naruto went silent for a moment and started laughing "And here I thought you were just a funny guy."

"Hey. I don't train to become a ninja just for show" Sokka answered turning back to the monastery, but was again stopped by Naruto.

"Just one more thing." He said. "You see, before I left, I was also training to be a ninja at the Fire Nation, but I could never do the clone jutsu correctly. Could you possibly help me?"

"Umm, I don't know, Naruto. To tell the truth I haven't masteredthat jutsu either." Sokka said, to which Naruto sighed deeply. "But I do know how to make shadow clone jutsu? So, would you like to learn it?

"Now or immediately!?" Naruto asked with his exitement returned to which Sokka chuckled.

* * *

Meanwhile Zuko's group were having a break, planning their next move.

"Okay, now we can kill two birds with one stone" Zuko said to the other kids. "If this mission succeeds, we will have both Naruto and the Avatar. Shino, Hinata and Kiba, your mission is to engage the water tribals and rescue Naruto. Meanwhile Kurenai and I capture the Avatar."

"What about general and June?" Kiba asked.

"We cannot trust uncle in this, so we will leave him out of the plan" Zuko answered, "And June will help to keep the sky bison down. Anyway, the plan to engage the water kids is this. Shino, you and your bugs face the boy. Kiba, your target is the girl. But the hard part is this. You two need to get these two closer to each other. Meanwhile you, Hinata, sneak behind the water tribals and stun them from behind. After that you find Naruto and leave. We will meet at the rendezvous point."

"Isn't this a rather risky effort?" Shino asked. "Shouldn't you have more help against the Avatar than just master Kurenai?"

"Kurenai and I have already prepared a couple of synchronized attacks?" Zuko explained. "We are both skilled in firebending and genjutsu, which none of you has skills, if I don't remember incorrectly. Anyway, do you have any questions?" All three shook their heads. "Good. Then we can leave."

* * *

At the monastery, Aang's was preparing Appa for take off. Though he trusted Naruto's plan to work, he was still worried that his friends would leave him. Soon Sokka, Katara and Naruto arrived with their stuff.

"So, what kind of decision did you make?" Aang asked.

"Well, we all pondered for a long time" Sokka explained. "Believe me, it wasn't an easy choice. Eventually we all-"

Sokka didn't have a chance to finish, because two flames flew towards Aang, who quickly dodged them. Everybody turned towards the gate, where the flames had come from. Zuko and his followers stood at the gate alongside a young woman and a strange animal.

"Execute the plan!" Zuko commanded.

Zuko's grew quickly overwhelmed Aang's group. Shino and Kiba had studied the movements of the water siblings and knew exactly, how to strike. Soon Hinata had a chance to use his stunning attack, which worked. Appa and Momo were lying on the ground paralyzed, having got struck by the shirsu's tongue. Aang was still up, but dodging two simultaneous flames was exhausting, and he could feel himself running out of stamina. Zuko was confident of gettingh both his cousin and the Avatar

"Naruto, don't worry, we're here to save you." Hinata said walking towards Naruto.

"No, Hinata! Don't come any closer" Naruto screamed. "Hacua is **going to kill all of you!" **

Hacua took over Naruto's body, blowing Hinata, Shino and Kiba away. Then he landed on four feet and came running towards June, ramming her out from the saddle. The shirsu came between Naruto and June, but then it smelled his scent and ran away howling. June watched in horror the boy.

"What are you?" She asked. "How can you scare Nyla?"

**"I am Hacua, human, the Nine-Tailed Fox of the Air Nomads." **Then Hacua discovered June's topknot. **"You, you're one of them! Die Fire National"**

June dodged quickly the gust blown by Hacua, which blew up the part of wall she was at a moment ago. "Wait!" She screamed "I'm a travelling bounty hunter, I'm not from the Fire Nation!"

**"Liar!" **Hacua screamed back **"Only Fire Nationals wear topknots!"**

Hacua stopped hunting June, when a flame passed right in front of him. Looking at the direction where the fire had come from, he saw general Iroh in a blattle stance.

"This has gone way too far, Hacua" He said. "I understand your hatred towards my people, but it doesn't give you any right to kill them. Release my son at once!"

**"Never!" **Hacua screamed throwing Iroh at a wall with a gust of wind. **"I have the full right to kill every single fire national in existence, just like you killed every single man, woman and child of my and Zinfi's people. And I'm going to start with YOU!"**

Hacua created a tornado with his hand. But before he could strike, he was pushed back by wind. Looking back he saw Aang, with Zuko and Kurenai at his sides.

"Why, Hacua" Aang asked with sadness in his eyes. "You promised me you wouldn't hurt others"

Tears fell from Hacua's eyes. **"I'm sorry, Aang. But I cannot keep that promise, ever! I can never forgive The Fire Nation!"**

Hacua jumped over the wall and disappeared to the woods. Zuko ran to his uncle, Kurenai following him.

"Come on Aang! Well have to go!" Sokka shouted to Aang, snapping him out of his shock. Aang ran towards Appa, where Katara, Sokka and Momo were waiting. Commanding Appa to fly, the group left.

"So, where shall we go now." Sokka asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Aang commented "Well go after Hacua, before he causes more damage. Besides he's moving towards north, so it will not slow down our travel."

Though Aang had decided to keep on helping Hacua, he was starting to doubt. He wondered if it was too late, that these one hundred years had filled the sacred beast's thoughts with bloodlust not truly extinguishable, that Hacua had already completely succumbed to madness.

* * *

Meanwhile in a hut near a river, an old man was standing in the middle of candles. A young man with a scar on his nose came in.

"You called me, father" The young man said.

"Yes, Iruka." The old man aswered. "The fire has spoken to me. The Hero of the Fire Nation is getting weaker in mind, while the Beast of Revenge gets stronger."

"Do you mean Naruto?"

"Yes. Before you ask, the reason I'm telling you this is that he's coming this way alongside the Avatar. The only one who can save Naruto is you."

"Well I could try, father. But how can I do it?"

"You will know, once you see him. Also, do not tell Mizuki about this. Unlike you and me, he doesn't accept Naruto's existence. If Mizuki confronts him, Naruto might die. Now go."

Iruka bowed and left the hut. Little did he know that a white haired youth around Iruka's age had listened secretly their conversation. Silently he left the hut as well.


End file.
